dung

English

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dung

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌŋ/
• Rhymes: -ʌŋ

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English dung, dunge, donge, from Old English dung (“dung; excrement; manure”), from Proto-Germanic *dungō (“dung”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”).

Noun

dung (countable and uncountable, plural dungs)

1. (uncountable) Manure; animal excrement.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 129:

     Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt, and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Malachi 2:3:

     Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 496:

     The labourer at the dung cart is paid at 3d. or 4d. a day; and on one estate, Lullington, scattering dung is paid a 5d. the hundred heaps.

2. (countable) A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

dung (third-person singular simple present dungs, present participle dunging, simple past and past participle dunged)

1. (transitive) To fertilize with dung.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     a cart he found, That carry'd compost forth to dung the ground

   • 1993, Henry Leach, Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections:

     She had been dunging the roses and was fairly covered in muck.

2. (transitive, calico printing) To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.
3. (intransitive) To release dung: to defecate.
   • 1669, John Baptiſta Porta, chapter V, in Natural Magick‎, The Third Book Of Natural Magick: , page 68:

     […] for hungry birds have devoured ſeeds, and having moiſtened and warmed them in their bellies, a little after have dunged in the forky twiſtes of Trees, and together with their dung excluded the ſeed whole which erſt they had ſwallowed: and ſometimes it brings forth there where they dung it, […]

Synonyms

• (to shit): See Thesaurus:defecate

Translations

Etymology 2

See ding

Verb

dung

1. (obsolete) past participle of ding

Etymology 3

unknown

Verb

dung (third-person singular simple present dungs, present participle dunging, simple past and past participle dunged)

1. (colloquial) To discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.

Etymology 4

Onomatopeia

Interjection

dung

1. Alternative spelling of dong (“sound of a bell”)

Anagrams

• UNDG

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

dung

1. Alternative form of donge (“dung”)

Etymology 2

Noun

dung

1. Alternative form of donge (“Hell”)

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dunɡ/,

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *dung (“cellar”).

Alternative forms

• ding

Noun

dung f (nominative plural dyng)

1. dungeon, prison

Declension

Synonyms

• dimhūs

Descendants

• Middle English: donge, dung, dunge
• Middle English: dongeoun (partly)
  • English: dungeon, donjon
  • Scots: dungeon

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *dungō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”).

Alternative forms

• ding

Noun

dung f

1. dung, manure

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: donge, dong, donke, doung, dounge, dung, dunge
  • English: dung
  • Scots: dung

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *dung (“cellar”).

Noun

dung m or f

1. weaving, weavingroom

Descendants

• Middle Low German: dunk, dunc

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• (Northern Vietnam) dong

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 容 (“to tolerate; facial traits”). Also from Chinese 婦容／妇容 (phụ dung, “wifely look”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key):
• (Huế) IPA^(key):
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key):
• Homophones: Dung, giun, vun, vung

Verb

dung

1. (archaic or literary) to tolerate

   trời không dung, đất không tha

   the sky doesn't tolerate it, the earth doesn't forgive it

Noun

dung

1. (Confucianism) beauty, one of the tứ đức (“four virtues”) that women are supposed to have

See also