ordure

[awr-jer, ‑dyoor]

noun

1. dung; manure; excrement.

ordure

/ ˈɔːdjʊə /

noun

1. excrement; dung

2. something regarded as being morally offensive

Other Word Forms

• ordurous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ordure¹

1300–50; Middle English < Old French, equivalent to ord filthy (< Latin horridus horrid ) + -ure -ure

Word History and Origins

Origin of ordure¹

C14: via Old French, from ord dirty, from Latin horridus shaggy

Example Sentences

“Though purple may have symbolized a higher order, it reeked of a lower ordure,” Dr. Grovier writes in his book, “The Art of Colour.”

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Government entomologists imported dozens of species of beetles to address several problems, among them fouled pastures, slowing decomposition and disease-carrying flies in ordure.

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“It is I, Abigail,” she says, standing there with ordure on her dress, having been booted out of a carriage.

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“The ordure and other evacuations of the sick, were allowed to remain in the most offensive state imaginable....It was, in fact, a great human slaughter-house.”

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The alternative — trying to cram all this ordure back into its closet and forget we ever saw it — is, I hope, unthinkable.

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Related Words

• droppings 
• dung 
• feces 
• manure 
• urine