SOIL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does soil mean? 

• SOIL (noun)
  The noun SOIL has 4 senses:

1. the state of being covered with unclean things

2. the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock

3. material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use)

4. the geographical area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state

  Familiarity information: SOIL used as a noun is uncommon.

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

1. make soiled, filthy, or dirty

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being covered with unclean things

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

dirt; filth; grease; grime; grunge; soil; stain

Hypernyms ("soil" is a kind of...):

dirtiness; uncleanness (the state of being unsanitary)

Derivation:

soil (make soiled, filthy, or dirty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

dirt; soil

Hypernyms ("soil" is a kind of...):

earth; ground (the loose soft material that makes up a large part of the land surface)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "soil"):

humus (partially decomposed organic matter; the organic component of soil)

Indian red (a red soil containing ferric oxide; often used as a pigment)

laterite (a red soil produced by rock decay; contains insoluble deposits of ferric and aluminum oxides)

loam (a rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand and clay and decaying organic materials)

loess (a fine-grained unstratified accumulation of clay and silt deposited by the wind)

mold; mould (loose soil rich in organic matter)

clay; mud (water soaked soil; soft wet earth)

bole (a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment))

podsol; podsol soil; podsolic soil; podzol; podzol soil (a soil that develops in temperate to cold moist climates under coniferous or heath vegetation; an organic mat over a grey leached layer)

prairie soil (a type of soil occurring under grasses in temperate climates)

sand (a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral)

sedimentary clay (clay soil formed by sedimentary deposits)

silt (mud or clay or small rocks deposited by a river or lake)

boulder clay; till (unstratified soil deposited by a glacier; consists of sand and clay and gravel and boulders mixed together)

tundra soil (a black mucky soil with a frozen subsoil that is characteristic of Arctic and subarctic regions)

wiesenboden (a dark meadow soil rich in organic material; developed through poor drainage in humid grassy or sedge regions)

gumbo; gumbo soil (any of various fine-grained silty soils that become waxy and very sticky mud when saturated with water)

marl (a loose and crumbling earthy deposit consisting mainly of calcite or dolomite; used as a fertilizer for soils deficient in lime)

regosol (a type of soil consisting of unconsolidated material from freshly deposited alluvium or sand)

residual clay; residual soil (the soil that is remaining after the soluble elements have been dissolved)

surface soil; topsoil (the layer of soil on the surface)

subsoil; undersoil (the layer of soil between the topsoil and bedrock)

alluvial soil (a fine-grained fertile soil deposited by water flowing over flood plains or in river beds)

bog soil (poorly drained soils on top of peat and under marsh or swamp vegetation)

clay (a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired)

clunch (hardened clay)

desert soil; desertic soil (a type of soil that develops in arid climates)

caliche; hardpan (crust or layer of hard subsoil encrusted with calcium-carbonate occurring in arid or semiarid regions)

fuller's earth (an absorbent soil resembling clay; used in fulling (shrinking and thickening) woolen cloth and as an adsorbent)

gilgai soil (soil in the melon holes of Australia)

indurated clay (hardened clay)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

ground; land; soil

Context example:

good agricultural soil

Hypernyms ("soil" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "soil"):

bottom; bottomland (low-lying alluvial land near a river)

badlands (deeply eroded barren land)

wetland (a low area where the land is saturated with water)

greensward; sod; sward; turf (surface layer of ground containing a mat of grass and grass roots)

scablands ((geology) flat elevated land with poor soil and little vegetation that is scarred by dry channels of glacial origin (especially in eastern Washington))

rangeland (land suitable for grazing livestock)

polder (low-lying land that has been reclaimed and is protected by dikes (especially in the Netherlands))

permafrost (ground that is permanently frozen)

overburden (the surface soil that must be moved away to get at coal seams and mineral deposits)

cultivated land; farmland; ploughland; plowland; tillage; tilled land; tilth (arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops)

coastland (land in a coastal area)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The geographical area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

soil; territory

Context example:

American troops were stationed on Japanese soil

Hypernyms ("soil" is a kind of...):

geographic area; geographic region; geographical area; geographical region (a demarcated area of the Earth)

• SOIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they soil    ... he / she / it soils   
Past simple: soiled   
Past participle: soiled   
-ing form: soiling   

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 "soil" is one way to...):

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

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

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

Derivation:

soil (the state of being covered with unclean things)

soiling; soilure (the act of soiling something)

 Context examples 

N. farcinica is found in soil and is a causative agent of nocardiosis.

(Nocardia farcinica, NCI Thesaurus)

The event prompted numerous changes in the lakes, streams and soils of the region over the following decade.

(Extreme melt season leads to decade-long ecosystem changes in Antarctica's Dry Valleys, National Science Foundation)

A. delafieldii is normally found in soil.

(Acidovorax delafieldii, NCI Thesaurus)

N. otitidiscaviarum is found in soil and has only been associated with a few cases of nocardiosis.

(Nocardia otitidiscaviarum, NCI Thesaurus)

“The soil is good; and I never pass it without regretting that the fruit should be so little worth the trouble of gathering.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The technique is used for many other vegetables as a means of dealing with stress factors such as extreme climate conditions and toxic soil.

(Grafting helps pepper plants deal with drought, SciDev.Net)

Most of the environmental effects came from soil nutrients.

(Corn better used as food than biofuel, National Science Foundation)

M. gastri is found in soil and water, occasionally in human stomach contents, is rarely associated with human disease and may be considered nonpathogenic.

(Mycobacterium gastri, NCI Thesaurus)

B. mycoides is found in soil.

(Bacillus mycoides, NCI Thesaurus)

M. peregrinum is found in soil and water-related sources and is related to surgical site and catheter related infections.

(Mycobacterium peregrinum, NCI Thesaurus)