Soil

Definition of Soil

Pronunciation: soil

v. t.

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.

[imp. & p. p. Soiled (soild); p. pr. & vb. n. Soiling.]

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.

Land; country.

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave
Thee, native soil?

- Milton.

Dung; fæces; compost; manure; as, night soil.

Improve land by dung and other sort of soils.

- Mortimer.

Soil pipe
a pipe or drain for carrying off night soil.

v. t.

To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.

Men . . . soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop.

- South.

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.

As deer, being stuck, fly through many soils,
Yet still the shaft sticks fast.

- Marston.

To take soil
to run into the mire or water; hence, to take refuge or shelter.

O, sir, have you taken soil here? It is well a man may reach you after three hours' running.

- B. Jonson.

v. t.

To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile; as, to soil a garment with dust.

Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained.

- Milton.

To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.

v. i.

To become soiled; as, light colors soil sooner than dark ones.

That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain.

A lady's honor . . . will not bear a soil.

- Dryden.

Related Words

abuse, acres, adobe, airspace, alluvion, alluvium, arable land, area, attaint, bedaub, begrime, belt, benasty, besmear, besmirch, besmoke, besmutch, besoil, bespatter, bestain, betray, black, blacken, blot, blotch, blow upon, blur, bole, brand, call names, censure, china clay, clay, clod, confines, contaminate, continental shelf, corridor, corrupt, country, crust, darken, daub, debauch, deceive, defame, deflower, demoralize, denigrate, department, despoil, dirty, disapprove, disgrace, disparage, district, division, drabble, draggle, dregs, dry land, dust, engage in personalities, environs, excrement, expose, expose to infamy, filth, force, foul, freehold, gibbet, glebe, grassland, ground, gumbo, hang in effigy, heap dirt upon, heartland, hinterland, humus, kaolin, land, landholdings, lead astray, lithosphere, loess, marginal land, mark, marl, mess, milieu, mire, mislead, mold, motherland, muck, muckrake, mucky, mud, muddy, murk, nasty, neighborhood, offshore rights, part, parts, pillory, place, pollute, porcelain clay, precincts, premises, purlieus, quarter, rape, ravage, ravish, real estate, real property, red clay, refuse, region, regolith, reprimand, revile, ruin, salient, sand, scorch, sear, section, seduce, silt, singe, slubber, sludge, slur, smear, smirch, smoke, smooch, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, sod, soilage, soilure, space, spoil, stigmatize, subaerial deposit, subsoil, sully, taint, tar, tarnish, terra, terra firma, terrain, territory, the country, three-mile limit, throw mud at, till, topsoil, turf, twelve-mile limit, vicinage, vicinity, vilify, violate, vitiate, waste matter, woodland, zone

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Soft-shell tortoise
Soft-shelled crab
Soft-shelled turtle
Soft-spoken
Soft-tack
Softa
Soften
Softener
Softening
Softening of the brain
Softish
Softling
Softly
Softner
Softness
Soger
Sogginess
Soggy
Soho
Soi-disant
-Soil-
Soil pipe
Soiled dove
Soiliness
Soilless
Soilure
Soily
Soiree
Soja
Sojer
Sojourn
Sojourner
Sojourning
Sojournment
Soke
Sokeman
Sokemanry
Soken
Soko
Sol
Sol-fa

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