down-and-dirty

[doun-uhn-dur-tee]

adjective

Informal.

1. unscrupulous; nasty.

   a down-and-dirty election campaign.

2. earthy; funky.

down and dirty

adjective

1. ruthlessly competitive or underhand

   if Bush gets down and dirty the Governor will give as good as he gets

2. uninhibited; frank

Word History and Origins

Origin of down and dirty¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Idioms and Phrases

Vicious, not governed by rules of decency, as in The candidates are getting down and dirty early in the campaign . [ Slang ; early 1980s]

Very earthy, uninhibitedly sexual. For example, “L.A. club people rarely get down and dirty on a dance floor” ( The New Yorker , May 21, 1990). [Late 1980s]

Example Sentences

Other times she visited the bay and engaged in her own down-and-dirty research.

From Salon

I immediately replied yes, envisioning that I’d swim with sharks in South Africa or track polar bears in Alaska so, of course, I got sent to a down-and-dirty campsite in Vermont for a show called “Building Wild.”

From Los Angeles Times

As the country prepares to select a new president, it seems fitting that some of the most nominated series are fueled by the art, strategy and down-and-dirty combat of politics.

From Los Angeles Times

The thriller “Monkey Man” opens on a tender scene and a nod to the power of storytelling, only to quickly get down to down-and-dirty, action-movie business with a flurry of hard blows and faster edits.

From New York Times

Further hints of Burroughs are daubed here and there throughout the twin McCarthy books: the unseemly characters populating a down-and-dirty underworld, dubious detectives and layers of pulp noir, mental wards and medical jargon, an unreliable plot — plenty of elements feel like they would be right at home in the infamous Beat writer's Interzone junkscape.

From Salon

Related Words

• bawdy 
• crude 
• ribald 
• vulgar