Definitions

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

  • noun The excrement of animals.
  • noun Manure.
  • noun Something foul or abhorrent.
  • transitive verb To fertilize (land) with manure.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Preterit and past participle of ding.
  • To cover with dung; manure with or as with dung.
  • In calico-printing, to immerse in a bath of cow-dung and warm water in order to remove the superfluous mordant.
  • To void excrement.
  • noun The excrement of animals; ordure; feces.

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

  • intransitive verb To void excrement.
  • noun The excrement of an animal.
  • transitive verb To manure with dung.
  • transitive verb (Calico Print.) To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung; -- done to remove the superfluous mordant.

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

  • verb obsolete Past participle of ding
  • verb colloquial To discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.
  • noun uncountable Manure; animal excrement.
  • noun countable A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.
  • verb transitive To fertilize with dung.
  • verb transitive, Calico printing To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.
  • verb intransitive To void excrement.

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

  • verb defecate; used of animals
  • verb fertilize or dress with dung
  • noun fecal matter of animals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See ding

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

unknown

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old English.

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Examples

  • Merryn Dineley, a historian from Manchester University and chief brewer of the ancient liquor, insists that the dung is an essential component of the original flavour.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » April 2006

  • BTW, "dung" is in the King James Bible (aka God's Word according to some literalists), whereupon we find this coprophiliac passage in Isaiah 36: 12:

    THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!! Hal Duncan 2008

  • Well, try working with us and not rubbing our noses in dung for a change!

    Israeli defense minister expresses worries about relations with U.S. 2010

  • In the 1860s, there was widespread concern that, by the turn of the century, there would be an insufficient number of people to go round picking up all the horse dung from the carriages.

    Look How Clever We Are ! Newmania 2008

  • Jason had too, at first, but they lost their novelty when you were shovelling several times your own weight in dung a day.

    Enter the Sky Man « A Fly in Amber 2008

  • Hinduism reveres the cow, and its dung is used in the countryside as both a disinfectant and as fuel.

    Teachers ‘Purify’ Students with Cow Urine | Impact Lab 2007

  • A mixture of coal dust and organic material, primarily cattle dung is formed into patties and then slapped against the wall to dry.

    Open BTUs William "Papa" Meloney 2007

  • Palm oil and sugar cane are the dominant crops in the region, but everything from coconuts to castor oil to cow dung is being tested for fossil-fuel alternatives such as ethanol and biodiesel.

    Archive for » 2006 » April : Sustainablog 2006

  • Palm oil and sugar cane are the dominant crops in the region, but everything from coconuts to castor oil to cow dung is being tested for fossil-fuel alternatives such as ethanol and biodiesel.

    Asia Looking Hard at Biofuels 2006

  • The cloth would then be cleared — soaked in dung or a similar substance — and then washed and dried.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

Comments

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  • What's brown and sounds like a bell?

    November 8, 2007

  • Eeew.

    Hey, who dresses with dung these days, anyway? And who writes those definitions up there?

    November 8, 2007

  • It's quite fashionable here in New Mexico. I thought everyone dressed with it?

    November 8, 2007

  • Why is it a verb? Sheesh. WordNet is weird.

    November 8, 2007

  • It is. It's WeirdNet.

    We don't dress with it here, uselessness. It's not warm enough.

    Eeew.

    November 8, 2007

  • Lol, skip!

    September 26, 2008

  • I did not know that "dung" could also be an abbreviation. Usage here.

    October 23, 2008

  • See cleanse. (BTW, I am never wearing calico again.)

    April 21, 2011

  • "Preterit and past participle of ding." --Cent. Dict.

    April 22, 2011

  • I am surprised at the pictures here. I'm fairly sure only one of those features dung (the noun) in its most common usage.

    March 7, 2013

  • Probably image filter at work.

    March 11, 2013