Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A heap of animal excrement.
  • noun A foul, degraded condition or place.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A heap of dung.
  • noun Hence Figuratively— A mean or vile abode.
  • noun Any degraded situation or condition.
  • noun A man meanly born: a term of abuse.
  • Sprung from the dunghill; mean; low; base.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A heap of dung.
  • noun Any mean situation or condition; a vile abode.
  • noun a domestic fowl of common breed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A heap of dung, especially one for agricultural purposes; a muckheap, dungheap.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a heap of dung or refuse
  • noun a foul or degraded condition

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A dunghill was the pbce of his high bii th j Yet the impo (tor would afpii e to ot,

    The pilgrim's progress from this world to that which is to come .. 1785

  • Rocky Mountains watered by the Columbia River. at least we did not See them untill we reached the waters of that river, nor Since we have left those mountains. they are about the Size of a well grown hen. the contour of the bird is much that of the redish brown Pheasant common to our country. the tail is proportionably as long and is composed of 18 feathers of equal length, of a uniform dark brown tiped with black. the feathers of the body are of a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most prodomonates, and white feathers are irregularly intermixed with those of the black and dark brown on every part but in greater perpotion about the neck breast and belly. this mixture gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill fowl, which the henwives of our Countrey Call dommanicker. in the brest of Some of those birds the white prodominates most. they are not furnished with tufts of long feathers on the neck as other Pheasants are, but have a

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • (the school being then in the church) till it became a kind of dunghill, and so remains to this day.

    Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies John Howie 1764

  • a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most predominates, and wh [i] te feathers are irregularly intermixed with those of the black and dark brown on every part, but in greater proportion about the neck breast and belley. this mixture gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill fowl which the hen-wives of our country call dommanicker

    Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 1904

  • Instead of mounting a dunghill and crowing how well we have revenged ourselves on others, we might want to offer sound and sustainable ideas of individual, economic and social justice to ensure as far as humanly possible that every person everywhere has an equal opportunity to enjoy life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.

    Bin Laden's Death Raises Moral Issues 2011

  • Moreover, it won't work: as I noted last month, Glenn Mulcaire, whose work for the News Of The World has formed the basis for most of the recent slew of revelations, was only one of around a dozen investigators working for those who scrabble around on the dunghill that is Grubstreet.

    Tim Fenton: Phone Hacking - A Lack Of Leadership Tim Fenton 2011

  • In purging the New Testament of its miracles and of the very notion of the Resurrection, Jefferson claimed he was separating the "diamonds" from a "dunghill."

    Denis Lacorne: Rick Perry's War On The Founding Fathers Denis Lacorne 2011

  • He squirms on his dunghill, and like a child lost in the dark among goblins, calls to the gods that he is their younger brother, a prisoner of the quick that is destined to be as free as they -- monuments of egotism reared by the epiphenomena; dreams and the dust of dreams, that vanish when the dreamer vanishes and are no more when he is not.

    Chapter 37 2010

  • In purging the New Testament of its miracles and of the very notion of the Resurrection, Jefferson claimed he was separating the "diamonds" from a "dunghill."

    Denis Lacorne: Rick Perry's War On The Founding Fathers Denis Lacorne 2011

  • This broken clock/drum says: Amazon reviewers suck, as does Amazon; they're the flies making the dunghill look lively.

    "Serpent!" screamed the Pigeon. greygirlbeast 2010

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  • We common fellows, the fungous growth of the human dunghill, look up to great lords with a facility of being overawed, which often furnishes them with a Benjamin's mess of importance, when nature has denied even the most scanty and trivial gifts.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 2

    September 20, 2008

  • ...when his excellency was no more than plain Don Francisco de Sandoval, this man had the humility to serve him as his lackey; since which time he has risen by degrees to the post of principal secretary. A prouder excrescence of the dunghill never sprung into vegetation on a summer's day.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 8 ch. 2

    October 3, 2008