dunghill, n.
(ˈdʌŋhɪl)
1. A heap or hillock of dung or refuse.
| c 1320 Seuyn Sag. (W.) 2417 To-delue anon in thi donghel. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 109 For ypocrysie in latyn is lykned to a dongehul [1393 C. xvii. 265 dounghep]. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop i. i, As a Cok ones sought his pasture in the donghylle he fond a precious stone. 1697 Sir T. P. Blount Ess. 29 Raking of Dunghills is an Employment more fit for a Scavenger than a Gentleman. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. ii. iii. (1869) I. 352 One half, perhaps, of these provisions is thrown to the dunghill. 1843 Lever J. Hinton xx, Mud hovels, with their dunghills..around them. |
b. In proverbs and locutions.
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 25 But he was at home there, he might speake his will, Euery cock is proude on his owne dunghill. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 43 Alexander and Darius, when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dunghill. 1857 Trollope Three Clerks xl, Mr. Chaffanbrass was the cock of this dung-hill. 1879 Froude Cæsar xv. 233 What he [Cicero] could not say in the Forum he thought he might venture on with impunity in the Senate, which might be called his own dunghill. |
2. transf. and
fig. a. A heap or repository of filth or rubbish; often applied depreciatively to the earth, and to the human body. Also as the type of the lowest or most degraded situation.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 147 b, Y⊇ foule & fylthy donghyll of this world. 1540 Morysine Vives' Introd. Wysd. C ij, The fayrest body is nothing els but a doungehyll covered in white and purple. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Salisbury ix, And buryed in the dounghil of defame. 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel ii. i, More to be loath'd than vileness or sin's dunghill. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. v. (1851) 133 For matter of Books there is no body publishes huger Dunghils than you. 1768 Woman of Honor II. 40 Considering the condition from which this son of a dunghill sprung. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., Moving dunghill, a dirty filthy man or woman. 1817 Cobbett Wks. XXXII. 40 Those who have risen suddenly from the dunghill to a chariot. |
b. Applied opprobriously to a person of evil life, or of base station.
| 1553 Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 105 Shal y⊇ vile dong⁓hills of the earth presume to alter and chaunge the blessed and euerlasting Testament of y⊇ only begotten sonne of God? 1595 Shakes. John iv. iii. 87 Out, dunghill! dar'st thou braue a Nobleman? 1665 J. Spencer Vulg. Proph. 49 Paracelsus..was a walking Dunghil (so offensive and corrupt his life). |
c. With reference to the
dunghill cock (see 3 d), a man who is not ‘game’, a coward or spiritless fellow.
to die dunghill, to die as a coward, not to die ‘game’.
d. = dung 4.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans IV. 52 Submit, be a wretch, and die dunghill. 1761 Brit. Mag. II. 358 There would be no sport, as the combatants were both reckoned dunghills. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Dunghill, a coward; a cockpit phrase, all but game cocks being stiled dunghills; to die dunghill, to repent or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xliii, To see..whether the heroes of the day are, in the heroic language of insurgent tailors, flints or dunghills. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. Of or pertaining to a dunghill, as
dunghill beetle,
dunghill raker, etc.
b. Fit for or vile as a dunghill.
c. Cowardly, or showing no fight, as the dunghill cock.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 192 (Mätz.) A downghille doke as deynte as a snyghte. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 7 A dongehyll knave and vyle borne villeyne. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 39 This dunghill trade of Brokerie. 1601 Cornwallyes Ess. xxv, Many Dung-hill Birdes have maintained infinite labours, assisted onely with the fame of making their sonnes Gentlemen. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 423 Rich offerings..were made to that dunghill Deity. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1009 Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle, because it breeds from dung and filth. 1670 Brooks Wks. (1867) VI. 54 God never loves to lift up the light of his countenance upon a dunghill-spirited man. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. Progr. ii. 55 The Dunghil-raker, Spider, Hen, The Chicken too to me Hath taught a Lesson. 1794 Southey Wat Tyler iii. ii, My liege, 'twas wisely ordered, to destroy The dunghill rabble. 1889 Swinburne Study of Ben Jonson 70 Some dunghill gazetteer of this very present day. |
d. Special combs.:
dunghill-cock,
-fowl,
-hen, common barndoor fowls, as distinguished from the game-cock, etc.; so
dunghill craven.
| 1580 G. Harvey 3 proper wittie Lett. 29 [There are] Asses in Lions skins; *dunglecocks. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 163 The game-cock being by no means so fruitful as the ungenerous dunghill-cock. |
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 218 The difference..between the game-cock, and the *dunghill-craven. |
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 112 A few *dung-hill fowls were also found on these islands. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Vne poule de pailler, a *dunghill henne, a henne thats fed at the barne doore. |
Hence (chiefly
nonce-wds.)
ˈdunghill v. trans., to make
up into a dunghill; in
quot. fig.;
† ˈdunghillry, vile condition or practice;
ˈdunghilly a., like or characteristic of a dunghill; vile, ignoble.
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 205 Where I see nobilitie betraid to donghillrie, and learning to doultrie. 1632 Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry iv. i, Poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding. 1662 J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 115 It hides part of a stinking or Dunghilly ferment under the soureness of the milk. 1860 All Year Round No. 45. 438 Where all the lees of Stamboul were dunghilled up into one reeking mass of infamy. |