different between dirt vs pollute

English

Alternative forms

• durt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English drit (“excrement”), from Old Norse drit (“excrement”), from Proto-Germanic *drit?, *drit? (“excrement”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?reyd-, *treyd?- (“to have diarrhea”). Cognate with Norwegian dritt (“excrement”), Icelandic drit (“bird excrement”), Dutch drijten (“to defecate”), drits (“dirt, mud, filth”) and dreet (“excrement”), Low German drieten (“to defecate”), Driet (“shit”), regional German Driss (“shit”), Old English ?edr?tan (“to defecate”), Albanian ndyrë (“dirty, filthy”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dû(r)t, IPA^(key): /d??t/
• (General American) enPR: dûrt, IPA^(key): /d?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Noun

dirt (usually uncountable, plural dirts)

1. (chiefly US) Soil or earth.
2. A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance.

   Synonym: filth

3. Previously unknown facts, or the invented "facts", about a person.

   Synonyms: gossip, kompromat
4. (figuratively) Meanness; sordidness.
   • 1810, W. Melmoth (translator), Letters of Pliny

     honours […] thrown away upon dirt and infamy

5. (mining) In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
6. freckles
   • 1983 Pat Phoenix Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt page 158

     I'm one of Charlie's Angels too, but I'm the one with the dirty face.

   • 2005 Kevin O'Hara, "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims: A Man's Journey Through Ireland" page 244

     a dirty-faced redhead poked a soiled kerchief beneath my nose, and charmlessly wheedled, "Spare coppers, mister, Spare coppers!" This runny-nosed waif, a "knacker" in the Dublin vernacular, was of the traveling breed who had of late given up their painted wagons for the grimy ghettos of the city. The child -God Bless the Mark- had freckles that splotched her face as though God had applied them too hurriedly with a blunt brush.

   • 2016 Lindsay Bowman, To The Girls With Dirt On Their Faces

     Whatever you love about your freckles, they make you unique and beautiful. Don't always feel that you need to clean that dirt off your face with that foundation powder or contour layers. You're naturally beautiful as you are!

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

dirt (third-person singular simple present dirts, present participle dirting, simple past and past participle dirted)

1. (transitive, rare) To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty

Anagrams

• tri-D

English

Etymology

From Middle English polluten, from Latin poll?tum, from poll?tus (“no longer virgin", "unchaste”), perfect passive participle of pollu? (“soil", "defile", "dishonor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??lu?t/, /p??lju?t/
• Rhymes: -u?t

Verb

pollute (third-person singular simple present pollutes, present participle polluting, simple past and past participle polluted)

1. (transitive) To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.

2. (transitive) To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.

3. (dated) To corrupt or profane
   • 1952, Bible (Revised Standard Version, Revelation 21:8

     But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.

4. To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonour.

Derived terms

• polluter
• self-pollute

Related terms

• pollutant
• pollution

Translations

Adjective

pollute (comparative more pollute, superlative most pollute)

1. (rare) Polluted; defiled.

Translations

References

• pollute in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Latin

Participle

poll?te

1. vocative masculine singular of poll?tus

Middle English

Verb

pollute

1. Alternative form of polluten