dung

plural dungs

1. uncountableManure; animal excrement.

   The labourer at the dung cart is paid at 3d. or 4d. a day; and on one estate, Lullington, scattering dung is paid a 5d. the hundred heaps.

   1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 496

   3 more examples

   Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt, and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool[…]

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], line 129

   Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Malachi 2:3

   The farmer whose land the Pratincole had chosen to frequent had such an adversion to birders that he had been thundering up and down all day in a high-powered muck-spreader, splattering them with cow dung!

   1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 59

2. countableA type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.
3. UKcountableobsoleteslangA tailor's employee, usually one who is paid by the piece rather than by the day.

present singular third person dungs · participle present dunging · participle past dunged · past dunged

1. transitiveTo fertilize with dung.

   a cart he found, That carry'd compost forth to dung the ground

   1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   She had been dunging the roses and was fairly covered in muck.

   1993, Henry Leach, Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections

2. transitivecalico printingTo immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.
3. intransitiveTo release dung: to defecate.

   […] for hungry birds have devoured ſeeds, and having moiſtened and warmed them in their bellies, a little after have dunged in the forky twiſtes of Trees, and together with their dung excluded the ſeed whole which erſt they had ſwallowed: and ſometimes it brings forth there where they dung it, […]

   1669, John Baptiſta Porta, chapter V, in Natural Magick, The Third Book Of Natural Magick: […] , page 68

   Synonyms: defecate

1. obsoleteparticiplepastpast participle of ding

present singular third person dungs · participle present dunging · participle past dunged · past dunged

1. colloquialTo discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of dong (“sound of a bell”).

alternative Dzung · alternative Yung

1. A female given name from Vietnamese.

alternative Dzung · alternative Yung

1. A male given name from Vietnamese.