soil
/sɔɪl/ noun, verb
Forms soils soiling soiled soyl
- noun (uncountable) A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth. “We bought a bag of soil for the houseplants.”
- noun (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
- noun (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical, chemical, biological, and morphological properties and characteristics.
- noun Country or territory.
- noun That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
- noun A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
- noun Dung; compost; manure. “night soil”
- noun (cooking) A food preparation with the texture and often color of soil.
- verb (transitive) To make dirty.
- verb (intransitive) To become dirty or soiled. “Light colours soil sooner than dark ones.”
- verb (transitive, figurative) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
- verb (reflexive) To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed. “The child was so scared she soiled herself.”
- verb To make invalid, to ruin.
- verb To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
- noun (uncountable, euphemistic) Faeces or urine etc. when found on clothes.
- noun (countable, medicine) A bag containing soiled items.
- noun A wet or marshy place in which a boar or other such game seeks refuge when hunted.
- verb To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (due to such food having the effect of purging them) to purge by feeding on green food. “to soil a horse”
Synonyms
dirt earth besmirch dirty smirch assoil beclart bedaub bedirty imbrue (especially with blood) bedizen befile befilth befoul begrime beray beshit besmear besully bewray filth grime stain grease grunge land ground territory colly bemire
Etymology
From Middle English soile, soyle, sule (“ground, earth”), partly from Anglo-Norman soyl (“bottom, ground, pavement”), from Latin solium (“seat, chair; throne”), mistaken for Latin solum (“ground, foundation, earth, sole of the foot”); and partly from Old English sol (“mud, mire, wet sand”), from Proto-Germanic *sulą (“mud, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Middle Low German söle (“dirt, mud”), Middle Dutch sol (“dirt, filth”), Middle High German sol, söl (“dirt, mud, mire”), Danish søle (“mud, muck”). Compare French seuil (“level; threshold”) and sol (“soil, earth; ground”). See also sole, soal, solum.
For the sole and soil relation, compare typologically Russian по́чва (póčva) akin to подо́шва (podóšva).
From Middle English soilen, soulen, suylen (“to sully, make dirty”), partly from Old French soillier, souillier (“to soil, make dirty, wallow in mire”), from Old Frankish *saulijan, *sulwijan (“to make dirty, soil”); partly from Old English solian, sylian (“to soil, make dirty”), from Proto-Germanic *sulwōną, *sulwijaną, *saulijaną (“to soil, make dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Old Frisian sulia (“to soil, mire”), Middle Dutch soluwen, seulewen (“to soil, besmirch”), Old High German solōn, bisulen (“to make dirty”), German suhlen (“to soil, make dirty”), Danish søle (“to make dirty, defile”), Swedish söla (“to soil, make dirty”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bisauljan, “to bemire”). Compare sully.
From Middle English soyl, from Old French soil, souil (“quagmire, marsh”), from Frankish *sōlja, *saulja (“mire, miry place, wallow”), from Proto-Germanic *saulijō (“mud, puddle, feces”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”).
Cognate with Old English syle, sylu, sylen (“miry place, wallow”), Old High German sol, gisol (“miry place”), German Suhle (“a wallow, mud pit, muddy pool”).
From Old French saoler, saouler (“to satiate”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an inclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse.
- noun The upper stratum of the earth; the mold, or that compound substance which furnishes nutriment to plants, or which is particularly adapted to support and nourish them.
- noun Land; country.
- verb To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
Etymology [OF. saoler, saouler, to satiate, F. soûler, L. satullare, fr. satullus, dim. of satur sated. See Satire.]
Etymology [OE. soile, F. sol, fr. L. solum bottom, soil; but the word has probably been influenced in form by soil a miry place. Cf. Saloon, Soil a miry place, Sole of the foot.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “soil”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details