Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(Irish) a general term of abuse.

1996		J. Murphy A Picture of Paradise in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) Act I: I’m not a dirt bird. I’m not scum.
1997		Irish Times 8 July 🌐 You [Bertie Ahern] were a dirt-bird, always looking to give someone a kick .

see dirtball n.

the anus.

1963		C. Wood ‘John Thomas’ in Cockade (1965) Act I: Placed smartly up his dirt box – for the twice as quick to Damascus.
1976		(ref. to 1940s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 133: Well, you can shove that up your dirt box as far as you can poke it.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1998		D. Arrow Rough with Smooth 93: ‘Go on, Colin,’ he jeered, ‘slip him a length, right up the dirt box’ [Simes:DLSS].
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 57: Does my penchant for hornsmoking and being slammed up the dirtbox bother you at all?
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 98: I’ll do ya up the shitter [...] You love it up the dirtbox, you posh slags!

1. (US) the anus.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 312/2: 1979.
2002		Doctor Dan ‘Horny Family’ at mrdouble.com 🌐 ‘Your mommy is getting it up her ass!’ [...] Jason couldn’t believe it. How fucking horny was that! His mom taking her black boss up the dirt chute.

2. an insult.

2002

Dark Angel episode 9 ‘Red’ at DarkAngelFan.com 🌐 Don’t tell me your conscience got the better of you. Three-plus decades of being a world-class dirt chute and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and have to do the right thing.

1. (US, Southern/Western) a poor farmer.

1947		C. Willingham End as a Man (1963) 76: He dressed okay, not like a dirtdobber, or the way a nigger’ll dress.
1958		E. Frankel Band of Brothers 242: A dirt farmer [...] a dirt dauber.

2. (US, Southern/Western) a worthless person.

1962

P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 9: Hey, dirt-dobber! [...] Who are you?

3. (US campus) a sandal.

1969

in Current Sl. IV:3–4 (1970) 18: Guatemaly dirt dobbers, n. Sandals.

1. (US) a poor white; also attrib.; thus derog. adj. dirt-eating.

1844		in H. Catterall Judicial Cases II 392: The defendant drew a receipt for the purchase money [...] in which he stated [...] (they) were dirt eaters [DA].
1845		J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 88: ‘Whar do you aim to bury your dead Injuns, Cap’en?’ sarcastically inquired the little dirt-eater. ‘I’ll bury you, you little whifflin fice,’ said Captain Suggs in a rage.
1851		J.J. Hooper ‘The Elephant in Lafayette’ Tales of Alabama in Hudson Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) 121: ‘Is it a rail woman in thar?’ asked a skeptical dirt-eater.
1863		‘Edmund Kirke’ Life in Dixie’s Land 190: The dirt-eater did as he was bidden.
1871		E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Master (1892) 101: These bands of desperadoes still found among the ‘poor whitey,’ ‘dirt-eater’ class.
1913		A.C. Cole Whig Party in So. 189: The disunion men [c. 1851] [...] tried to discredit the Union movement in the eyes of Democrats by applying to it such epithets as [...] ‘Dirt-eaters’ [DA].
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 11: clay-eater, dirt-eater. Poor whites who eat clay.
1940		F. Hunt Long Trail from Texas 130: Why don’t ya tell this bunch a’ dirt-eatin’ shorthorns ta go ta hell.
1944		Botkin A Treasury of Amer. Folklore 322: Pineywoods tackies, hill-billies, dirt-eaters, clay-eaters.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 10: The Lord just don’t want a bunch of dirt-eating buggers walking the Streets of Gold.
1980		N. Algren ‘No More Christmases’ in Entrapment (2009) 261: You’re my kind of cop [...] you dirt-eating toad.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 130: Dumbass cracker [...] Dirt-eating Willy Cornbread.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 118: A poor Southern white, a.k.a. clay-eater.

2. (US) a toady.

1873

Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, NY) 6 May 2/3: He is head flunkey and dirt-eater to every despicable titled thing.

(US gay, west.) ‘rough trade’.

2022

(con. late 19C) J. Nevins ‘Western frontier gay slang’ on Twitter 2 Mar. 🌐 ‘dirt hawks’ = rough trade, presumably after ‘soiled doves’ (female prostitutes).

see dirtbag n.

a nightsoil collector.

1772

S. Whyte ‘A Familiar Epistle’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 320: The Hoarseness of the Dirt-man’s Throat.

see dirtball n.

see separate entries.

the anus.

2012

R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 131: [O]ne of his thumbs up my / Dirt-pipe.

see separate entry.

see dirt road n.

(US) one who has abandoned most if not all the normal standards of hygiene and cleanliness.

1998

JamBands.com mag. 🌐 As grating as it can be to hear that dirt-surfer say it, we really *are* all brothers and sisters under the skin.

a male homosexual, a sodomite.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 12: dirt tamper (n.): A pedicator. (Slang.) (See tamp (Oxford Dictionary): To ram home; to ram down hard.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 17: the man who fucks in anal intercourse, as opposed to the one who is fucked [...] dirt tamper (’40s).

see separate entry.

1. (US, also dig (the) dirt) to throw oneself to the ground.

1908		N.Y. Press 4 July in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 114: Titus did not slide [...] and the failure to hit the dirt cost him $25.
1922		Mohave County Miner (AZ) 3 Nov. 1/2: The car [...] skidded and pitched all the occupants out. They hit the dirt head on.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 183: Now you bums unload out o’ there! Hit the dirt!
1944		H. Brown Walk in Sun 15: Take them a hundred yards up from the barge and hit the dirt. [Ibid.] 119: He dug dirt again as a row of bullets passed over him.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 27: He must have been caught in an artillery barrage and didn’t know enough to hit the dirt.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 38: He didn’t see nuthin’, he hit the dirt.
1991		L.R. Arakaki 7 December 1941 82: The colonel hit the dirt and stayed there for the remainder of the first wave attack.
2000		(con. WWII) S.T. Tyng et al. Capture of Attu 120: I had made three or four dashes, the bullets whistling around me, and I hit the dirt again.

2. to run away, to leave quickly.

1911		El Paso Herald (TX) 26 July n.p.: Never fiddle round and stall— / Hit the dirt!
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 231: We drummed-up, smoked, yarned, then hit the dirt. Through woods, over moors.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 63: And, Cotton, hit the dirt! You won’t have a chance with that damned bunch of killers.
2002		S. Malensek The Weekend Warriors 28: Not willing to surrender, I tried to hit the dirt to get out of his field of fire.