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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dirty.

Unclean; covered with or containing unpleasant substances such as dirt or grime.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈdɜːti/UK/ˈdɝti/General-American[ˈdɝɾi]General-American
  1. Unclean; covered with or containing unpleasant substances such as dirt or grime.

    Despite a walk in the rain, my shoes weren't too dirty.
  2. That makes one unclean; corrupting, infecting.

    Don't put that in your mouth, dear. It's dirty.
  3. Morally unclean; obscene or indecent, especially sexually.

    At the reception, Uncle Nick got drunk and told dirty jokes to the bridesmaids.
  4. Dishonorable; violating accepted standards or rules.

    He might have scored, but it was a dirty trick that won him the penalty.
  5. Corrupt, illegal, or improper.

    I won't accept your dirty money!
  6. Out of tune.

    You need to tune that guitar: the G string sounds dirty.
  7. Of color, discolored by impurities.

    The old flag was a dirty white.
  8. Containing data needing to be written back to memory or disk.

    Occasionally it reads the sector into a dirty buffer, which means it needs to sync the dirty buffer first.
  9. Carrying illegal drugs among one's possessions or inside of one's bloodstream.

    slang
    None of y'all get into my car if you're dirty.
  10. Used as an intensifier, especially in conjunction with "great".

    informal
    He lives in a dirty great mansion.
  11. Sleety; gusty; stormy.

    dirty weather
  12. Of an alcoholic beverage, especially a cocktail or mixed drink: served with the juice of olives.

    slang
    dirty martini
  13. Of food, indulgent in an unhealthy way.

  14. Of food, covered in an array of indulgent toppings.

  15. Spreading harmful radiation over a wide area.

    a dirty explosion
    a dirty bomb
  16. Having the undercarriage or flaps in the down position.

  17. Of an audio recording: containing unwanted noise.

  18. Producing much ash.

  19. Containing something out of focus in the foreground, so as to frame the main subject.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English dirti, alteration of earlier dritti, equivalent to dirt + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German drēterich (“dirty”). See also drite.

adv/ˈdɜːti/UK/ˈdɝti/General-American[ˈdɝɾi]General-American
  1. In a dirty manner.

    to play dirty
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dirti, alteration of earlier dritti, equivalent to dirt + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German drēterich (“dirty”). See also drite.

verb/ˈdɜːti/UK/ˈdɝti/General-American[ˈdɝɾi]General-American
  1. To make (something) dirty.

    transitive
  2. To stain or tarnish (somebody) with dishonor.

    transitive
  3. To debase by distorting the real nature of (something).

    transitive
  4. To become soiled; to soil or defecate on.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dirti, alteration of earlier dritti, equivalent to dirt + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German drēterich (“dirty”). See also drite.

noun/ˈdɜːti/UK/ˈdɝti/General-American[ˈdɝɾi]General-American
  1. Anything that is dirty.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English dirti, alteration of earlier dritti, equivalent to dirt + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German drēterich (“dirty”). See also drite.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.