night soil
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of night soil
First recorded in 1765–75
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.
This strategy became necessary after an errant tomato plant sprouted from a visitor's night soil back in the 1960s.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 19, 2023
Often in exchange for a fee paid to each household, farmers collected what was called night soil at regular intervals to fashion into fertile compost.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2021
The problems of chamber pots — also known as “jerries, night soil, commodes, slop jars, close stools and thunder mugs” — also contributed to this noisome mix.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2016
They dumped their waste into brick-lined cesspits that would be emptied by the night soil men, who sold it as fertilizer or dumped it off Dung Pier into the Thames.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 15, 2014
We hide amongst the banana trees that have sprung up all around his latrine, even while it gives us the creeps knowing all this lush growth is fertilized by such a disgusting man’s night soil.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
