Dirt n.
1. Any foul of filthy substance, as excrement, mud, dust, etc.; whatever, adhering to anything, renders it foul or unclean; earth; as, a wagonload of dirt.
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. --Is. lvii. 20.
2. Meanness; sordidness.
Honors . . . thrown away upon dirt and infamy. --Melmoth.
3. In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
Dirt bed Geom., a layer of clayey earth forming a stratum in a geological formation. Dirt beds are common among the coal measures.
Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. --Humboldt. (b) Med. Same as Chthonophagia.
Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. --Otway (1684).
To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie.
Ge·oph·a·gism n. The act or habit of eating earth. See Dirt eating, under Dirt.
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