manure

present singular third person manures · participle present manuring · participle past manured · past manured

1. archaicliteraryTo cultivate by manual labor; to till; hence, to develop by culture.

   Manure thyself then; to thyself be approved; / And with vain, outward things be no more moved.

   1633, John Donne, Epistle to Mr. Rowland Woodward

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   A woman that wandring in our coaſtes hath bought / A plot for price: where ſhe a citie ſet: / To whom we gaue the ſtrond for to manure.

   1557 July 1, Virgil, “The Second Boke of Virgiles Aenæis”, in Henry [Howard, Earl] of Surrey, transl., edited by William Bolland, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenaeis, Turned into English Meter ([Roxburghe Club Publications; I]), London: […] A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1814, →OCLC

2. To apply manure (as fertilizer or soil improver).

   The farmer manured his fallow field.

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   My Lord of Hereford here whom you call King, / Is a foule traitour to proud Herefords King, / And if you crowne him let me propheſie, / The bloud of Engliſh ſhall manure the ground, / And future ages groane for this foule act, [...]

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

plural manures

1. countableuncountableAnimal excrement, especially that of common domestic farm animals and when used as fertilizer. Generally speaking, from cows, horses, sheep, pigs and chickens.

   1985, Biff Tannen (portrayed by Thomas F. Wilson), Back to the Future. I hate manure!

   2 more examples

   1988, Dave Mustaine, "Hook in Mouth", Megadeth, So Far, So Good... So What!. M, they will cover your grave with manure

   [T]he very wet winter will have washed much of the goodness out of the soil. Homemade compost and the load of manure we get from a friendly farmer may not be enough to compensate for what has leached from the ground.

   2014 April 21, Mary Keen, “You can still teach an old gardener new tricks: Even the hardiest of us gardeners occasionally learn useful new techniques [print version: Gardening is always ready to teach even the hardiest of us a few new tricks, 19 April 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), page G7

   Synonyms: dung

2. broadlycountableuncountableAny fertilizing substance, whether of animal origin or not; fertiliser.

   livestock manures

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   vegetable manure [⁠= green manure⁠]

   Malt dust consists chiefly of the infant radicle separated from the grain. I have never made any experiment upon this manure; but there is great reason to suppose it must contain saccharine matter; and this will account for its powerful effects.

   a. 1813, Sir Humphry Davy, "Lecture VI" in Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1840 reprint)

   The roots of plants, disengaged from the soil in the process of tilling and cleaning it, are also employed as a vegetable manure. Some of these, however, as the couch grass, being very vivacious, would readily spring again: and therefore it is necessary that their vegetative powers be destroyed, which may be done by mixing them with lime, and forming in this way a compost. Many farmers, however, to save time, or to prevent the risk of the plants springing again, burn them in little heaps upon the ground at the time of their being collected, and spread the ashes upon the surface. This may be sometimes convenient, but the effect is, that the principal nutritive part of the plant is dissipated, and nothing left but the carbonaceous, earthy, and other insoluble matter. —Low's Elements of Practical Agriculture.

   1841, Jesse Buel, The Farmers' Instructor. Consisting of Essays, Practical Directions, and Hints for the Management of the Farm and the Garden. Originally Published in the Cultivator; Selected and Revised for the School District Library, volume 1, Harper and Brothers, page 134

3. countableeuphemisticuncountableRubbish; nonsense; bullshit.

   “You know the police think I killed Marge, don't you?” “What a load of manure! I couldn't believe it when I read the paper.”

   2005, Ginny Aiken, Design on a Crime, page 217