dunghill
Americannoun
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a heap of dung
-
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
One night in France, Joe Patterson and his cousin, both A.E.F. officers, sat down on a farmyard dunghill for a heart-to-heart chat.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
With the same view, any sort of garbage or offal may be thrown out, if the dunghill is so situated—as it always should be—that its exhalations will not prove an annoyance.
From Sheep, Swine, and Poultry Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc. by Robert Jennings
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.
