dunghill

[ duhng-hil ]

noun

1. a heap of dung.
2. a repugnantly filthy or degraded place, abode, or situation.

dunghill

/ ˈdʌŋˌhɪl /

noun

1. a heap of dung
2. a foul place, condition, or person

Word History and Origins

Origin of dunghill¹

Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; dung, hill

Example Sentences

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

Hamlet says such slightly off-kilter lines as “To be or not to be, I there’s the point” and “What a dunghill idiot slave am I!”

From Washington Post

No question: If Barack Obama repeated Jefferson’s words, conservative Republicans would leap to their feet and the dunghill would hit the fan.

From Salon

In a 2010 interview, Modiano referred to himself as “a product of the dunghill of the Occupation, that bizarre time when people who should have never met did meet and by chance produced a child.”

From Los Angeles Times

Jefferson said the work was like extracting diamonds from a dunghill.

From Salon

Related Words

• debris
• rubbish
• trash
• waste