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
Then there is what Williams calls "the dunghill speech," a not-for-the-squeamish passage in which Shannon relates to Hannah how he once saw the natives of an unnamed country scavenge a dung heap for undigested food.
From Time Magazine Archive
Outside New Delhi, where one Indian critic relegated it to "the dunghill of propaganda," Maxwell's assessment is widely accepted.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ah! yes, you are on my barrels now; last time I saw you, you were on your own dunghill.
From Where There is Nothing Being Volume I of Plays for an Irish Theatre by W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
