DIRTY (dirtied, dirtier, dirtiest)

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dirty mean? 

• DIRTY (adjective)
  The adjective DIRTY has 12 senses:

1. soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime

2. (of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency

3. vile; despicable

4. spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination

5. contaminated with infecting organisms

6. (of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear

7. (of a manuscript) defaced with changes

8. obtained illegally or by improper means

9. expressing or revealing hostility or dislike

10. violating accepted standards or rules

11. unethical or dishonest

12. unpleasantly stormy

  Familiarity information: DIRTY used as an adjective is familiar.

• DIRTY (verb)
  The verb DIRTY has 1 sense:

1. make soiled, filthy, or dirty

  Familiarity information: DIRTY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIRTY (adjective)

Declension: comparative and superlative

Sense 1

Meaning:

Soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime

Synonyms:

dirty; soiled; unclean

Context example:

Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves

Similar:

ratty (dirty and infested with rats)

maculate (spotted or blotched)

mucky; muddy (dirty and messy; covered with mud or muck)

lousy (infested with lice)

scummy (covered with scum)

smudgy (smeared with something that soils or stains; these words are often used in combination)

snot-nosed; snotty (dirty with nasal discharge)

sooty (covered with or as if with soot)

travel-soiled; travel-stained (soiled from travel)

uncleanly (habitually unclean)

unswept (not having been swept)

unwashed (not cleaned with or as if with soap and water)

flyblown; sordid; squalid (foul and run-down and repulsive)

greasy; oily (smeared or soiled with grease or oil)

Augean (extremely filthy from long neglect)

bedraggled; draggled (limp and soiled as if dragged in the mud)

befouled; fouled (made dirty or foul)

begrimed; dingy; grimy; grubby; grungy; raunchy (thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot)

black; smutty (soiled with dirt or soot)

buggy (infested with bugs)

cobwebby (covered with cobwebs)

dirty-faced (having a dirty face)

feculent (foul with waste matter)

filthy; foul; nasty (disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter)

Also:

untidy (not neat and tidy)

Attribute:

cleanness (the state of being clean; without dirt or other impurities)

Antonym:

clean (free from dirt or impurities; or having clean habits)

Derivation:

dirt (the state of being covered with unclean things)

dirtiness (the state of being unsanitary)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency

Context example:

has a dirty mouth

Similar:

scatological (dealing pruriently with excrement and excretory functions)

blasphemous; blue; profane (characterized by profanity or cursing)

scabrous (dealing with salacious or indecent material)

lewd; obscene; raunchy; salacious (suggestive of or tending to moral looseness)

foul-mouthed; foul-spoken (using foul or obscene language)

cruddy; filthy; foul; nasty; smutty (characterized by obscenity)

dirty-minded (having lewd thoughts)

bawdy; off-color; ribald (humorously vulgar)

Also:

indecent (offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters)

Antonym:

clean ((of behavior or especially language) free from objectionable elements; fit for all observers)

Derivation:

dirtiness (obscenity in speech or writing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Vile; despicable

Synonyms:

dirty; filthy; lousy

Context example:

a filthy traitor

Similar:

awful; nasty (offensive or even (of persons) malicious)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination

Synonyms:

contaminating; dirty

Context example:

a dirty bomb releases enormous amounts of long-lived radioactive fallout

Antonym:

clean (not spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination)

Derivation:

dirt (the state of being covered with unclean things)

dirtiness (the state of containing dirty impurities)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Contaminated with infecting organisms

Synonyms:

dirty; pestiferous

Context example:

obliged to go into infected rooms

Similar:

infected; septic (containing or resulting from disease-causing organisms)

Derivation:

dirtiness (the state of being unsanitary)

Sense 6

Meaning:

(of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear

Synonyms:

dingy; dirty; muddied; muddy

Context example:

dirty-blonde hair

Similar:

impure (combined with extraneous elements)

Sense 7

Meaning:

(of a manuscript) defaced with changes

Synonyms:

dirty; foul; marked-up

Context example:

foul (or dirty) copy

Similar:

illegible ((of handwriting, print, etc.) not legible)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Obtained illegally or by improper means

Synonyms:

dirty; ill-gotten

Context example:

ill-gotten gains

Similar:

illegal (prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules)

Sense 9

Meaning:

Expressing or revealing hostility or dislike

Context example:

dirty looks

Similar:

hostile (characterized by enmity or ill will)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Violating accepted standards or rules

Synonyms:

cheating; dirty; foul; unsporting; unsportsmanlike

Context example:

fined for unsportsmanlike behavior

Similar:

unfair; unjust (not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception)

Sense 11

Meaning:

Unethical or dishonest

Synonyms:

dirty; shoddy; sordid

Context example:

shoddy business practices

Similar:

corrupt (lacking in integrity)

Sense 12

Meaning:

Unpleasantly stormy

Context example:

there's dirty weather in the offing

Similar:

stormy ((especially of weather) affected or characterized by storms or commotion)

• DIRTY (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make soiled, filthy, or dirty

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

begrime; bemire; colly; dirty; grime; soil

Context example:

don't soil your clothes when you play outside!

Hypernyms (to "dirty" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dirty"):

foul (make unclean)

contaminate; foul; pollute (make impure)

smear (stain by smearing or daubing with a dirty substance)

slime (cover or stain with slime)

muddy; muddy up (dirty with mud)

splash (soil or stain with a splashed liquid)

mire; muck; muck up; mud (soil with mud, muck, or mire)

crock (soil with or as with crock)

blemish; spot (mar or impair with a flaw)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

clean (make clean by removing dirt, filth, or unwanted substances from)

Derivation:

dirtying (the act of soiling something)

 Context examples 

He awoke next morning from rosy scenes of dream to a steamy atmosphere that smelled of soapsuds and dirty clothes, and that was vibrant with the jar and jangle of tormented life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She knew that little Ted would turn up again in time, safe and rosy, dirty and serene, and she always received him back with a hearty welcome, for Jo loved her babies tenderly.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Scraps of old copy-books and exercises litter the dirty floor.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Did not you ask it for anything?” said the wife, “we live very wretchedly here, in this nasty dirty pigsty; do go back and tell the fish we want a snug little cottage.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A draggled muslin cap on his head and a dirty gunny-sack about his slim hips proclaimed him cook of the decidedly dirty ship’s galley in which I found myself.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were four of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the fourth was shuttered up.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Gif it to heem, by Gar! Gif it to heem, the dirty t’eef!”

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The white of the throat and paws and the spots over the eyes was dirty because of the persistent and ineradicable brown, while the eyes themselves were twin topazes, golden and brown.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I kept expecting that Miss Scatcherd would praise her attention; but, instead of that, she suddenly cried out—You dirty, disagreeable girl! you have never cleaned your nails this morning!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)