▪ I. filthy, a.
(ˈfɪlθɪ)
[f. filth n. + -y1.]
1. a. Full of filth; besmeared or defiled with filth; dirty, foul, nasty, unclean. † the filthy parts: the private parts.
In early use often hardly more emphatic than the mod. dirty; it is now a violent expression of disgust, seldom employed in polite colloquial speech. Cf. the similar development in filth n. 2 b; also in foul a.
| 1382 Wyclif Zech. iii. 3 Jhesus was clothid with filthi clothis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xcv. (1495) 842 A serpent..louyth fylthi places. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 17 The inhabitantes..haue almost no apparel, couering onely theyr fylthy partes. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxv. (1887) 132 To go home thorough stinking streates, and filthy lanes. 1682 Otway Epil. 21 Apr., From the filthy dunghill-faction bred, New-form'd rebellion durst rear up its head. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 509 ¶3 The benches around are so filthy, that no one can sit down. 1832 Tennyson Pal. Art 201 In filthy sloughs they roll. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xiv, He was filthy and ragged. |
† b. Of air or clouds: Murky, thick. Obs.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. iii. 31 The coole and temperate Wind of Grace O're-blowes the filthy and contagious Clouds. 1605 ― Macb. i. i. 12 Houer through the fogge and filthie ayre. |
c. Of weather: extremely unpleasant.
| 1875 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) xi. 127 It was a most filthy day, pouring hard. 1895 ‘G. Mortimer’ Tales fr. Western Moors 290 You'm only half a notion o' weather till you'm atop of Darteymoor when 'tis filthy. 1955 Times 3 May 5/2 In filthy weather. |
2. Fond of filth, delighting in filth.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 18 The fylthy and stynkynge lust of the body. 1635 Swan Spec. M. Pref. (1643) 1 Like a filthie flie she seeks all over the body for a soare. 1778 R. Lowth Transl. Isaiah Notes (ed. 12) 156 The filthy animals that frequent such places. |
3. Morally foul or polluted; obscene.
| 1535 Coverdale Zeph. iii. 1 Wo to the abhominable, fylthie and cruel cite. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 49 Ballads..sung to filthy tunes. 1611 Bible Col. iii. 8 You also put off all these, anger..filthy communication out of your mouth. 1682 Bunyan Holy War 264 Being filthy, arch, and slie they quickly corrupted the families. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 271 ¶4 The Matron..commended the Discretion of the Writer, for having thrown his filthy Thoughts into Greek. 1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law 213 From this heaven the filthy one..descends to the earth to tempt and excite to evil. a 1897 Mod. He could not stand their filthy talk. |
4. † a. Disgraceful, contemptible, low, mean, scurvy, disgusting. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 10362 Neuer so filthy a fare hade fallyn in his hond. 1545 Brinklow Compl. xxiv. (1874) 65 Anty⁓chryst had fownd out that fylthy auricular confessyon. 1577–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1805) II. 419 This murther..was one of the most filthiest acts that ever was done. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 79 Doulas, filthy Doulas. 1610 Bp. Carleton Jurisd. 166 Taking other errours from other filthie heretiques. 1648 Milton Tenure Kings 42 The filthy love of gaine. 1728 Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. v. ii. 97 What's his filthy Name? 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xvi, Thou filthy weaver of rotten worsted. |
b. filthy lucre: dishonourable gain = Gr. αἰσχρὸν κέρδος (Tit. i. 11). Sometimes jocularly used for: Money; also absol. ‘The filthy’.
| 1526–34 Tindale Titus i. 11 Teachinge thinges which they ought not, because of filthy lucre. 1680 Hickeringill Meroz 30. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 116 ¶7, I did not make that Judgment for the Sake of filthy Lucre. 1855 Trollope Warden xi. 175 No man lived less addicted to filthy lucre than the warden. 1877 Blackmore Cripps (1887) 225, I can catch my own without any appeal to ‘the Filthy’. 1928 A. Huxley Let. 19 July (1969) 301 A considerable sale..and a corresponding quantity of filthy lucre. 1931 Wodehouse If I were You ii. 27 Just trying to make a bit of the filthy. |
5. quasi-n. A filthy person.
| 1681 Otway Soldiers Fort. i. i, Damn'd Whores, hout ye filthies. |
6. quasi-adv. = filthily.
| 1616 Rich Cabinet 93 b, Modesty shutteth a young mans lippes..so that he will not talke filthy. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. xi. 180 Which makes them shew filthy fine. 1843 Knickerbocker XXI. 122 His trousers [were] ‘filthy dirty’ and pulled up above the tops of his boots. 1940 M. Banning Enough to live On ix. 168 He's filthy rich and didn't earn a cent of it. 1954 J. B. Priestley Magicians ii. 28, I organise these parties for her—she's filthy rich. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 1/3 He told me he was filthy rich. |
7. Comb.
| 1823 in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 318 Filthy-looking people. 1824 J. Symmons tr. Agamem. æsch. 70 Where filthy-handed Mammon dwells. 1946 R. Lehmann Gipsy's Baby 125 Filthy tempered woman. |
▪ II. filthy, v.
(ˈfɪlθɪ)
[f. the adj.]
trans. To make filthy.
| 1917 J. Masefield Old Front Line v. 67 All this mess of heaps and hillocks is strung and filthied over with broken bodies and ruined gear. 1952 C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil's Aeneid iii. 60 They tear the banquet to pieces, filthying all with their bestial Touch. 1967 ‘La Meri’ Sp. Dancing (ed. 2) xi. 137 Cigarette butts and spilled liquids filthied the floor. |