dunghill
Americannoun
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a heap of dung
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a foul place, condition, or person
Etymology
Origin of dunghill
Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at dung, hill
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He once described himself to one of his children as “a machine condemned to devour books and then throw them, in a changed form, on the dunghill of history.”
From The New Yorker • Oct. 3, 2016
Jefferson said the work was like extracting diamonds from a dunghill.
From Salon • May 31, 2012
At last, when his younger brother married and the whole village reveled round him, Grisha under his dunghill cursed the day when cowardice induced him to be buried alive.
From Time Magazine Archive
On a dunghill back of a farmhouse at Mareuil-en-D�1e, the cousins held the famous conversation that sired the fabulous New York Daily News.
From Time Magazine Archive
They are very quiet, walk slowly, scratch but little, do not fly, are very tame, ramble but little, and prefer seeking their food on the dunghill in the poultry-yard to wandering afar off.
From Poultry A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition. by Piper, Hugh
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
