Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Excrement; dung.
  • noun Something morally offensive; filth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Dung; excrement; feces.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Dung; excrement; fæces.
  • noun obsolete Defect; imperfection; fault.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun excrement, dung

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from ord, filthy, from Latin horridus, frightful, from horrēre, to shudder.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French ordure, from ord ‘filthy’, from Latin horridus ’horrid’, + -ure.

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Examples

  • As this mud consists chiefly of human ordure, which is regularly thrown into the canals every morning, there not being a necessary-house in the whole town, it poisons the air while it is drying, to a considerable extent.

    A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 Robert Kerr 1784

  • They hang them up by the heels, as we used to do with the drowned, and stuff their mouths with human ordure which is sure to produce emesis.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • In his own spirited protest he tells us of the 'ordure' that was thrown at him; and it is an old saying that if enough mud be thrown some will stick.

    Henry Fielding A Memoir Godden, G M 1909

  • By consent, he passed the case on to a higher court, which declared that the play was not immoral; acquitted Mr Daly; and made an end of the attempt to use the law to declare living women to be "ordure," and thus enforce silence as to the far-reaching fact that you cannot cheapen women in the market for industrial purposes without cheapening them for other purposes as well.

    How He Lied to Her Husband George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • Warren are "ordure," and should not be mentioned in the presence of decent people.

    How He Lied to Her Husband George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • They hang them up by the heels, as we used to do with the drowned, and stuff their mouths with human ordure which is sure to produce emesis.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • 'ordure' that was thrown at him; and it is an old saying that if enough mud be thrown some will stick.

    Henry Fielding: a Memoir G. M. Godden

  • The title, "Le père Noël est une ordure," translates to " Santa Stinks ."

    Last Year, Last Chance Steve Dollar 2011

  • If anyone from Network Rail or the Misassociation of Train Operating Companies is reading this, I simply ask if it is beyond them to devise a clear, simple system of announcements, in plain English, restricted to essential information rather than the incessant outpouring of all this aural ordure.

    Railspeak should be terminated 2011

  • If anyone from Network Rail or the Misassociation of Train Operating Companies is reading this, I simply ask if it is beyond them to devise a clear, simple system of announcements, in plain English, restricted to essential information rather than the incessant outpouring of all this aural ordure.

    Railspeak should be terminated 2011

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