Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To feed (livestock) with soilage.
  • noun The top layer of the earth's surface in which plants can grow, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with decayed organic matter and having the capability of retaining water.
  • noun A particular kind of earth or ground.
  • noun Country; land.
  • noun The agricultural life.
  • noun A place or condition favorable to growth; a breeding ground.
  • intransitive verb To make dirty, particularly on the surface.
  • intransitive verb To disgrace; tarnish.
  • intransitive verb To corrupt; defile.
  • intransitive verb To dirty with excrement.
  • intransitive verb To become dirty, stained, or tarnished.
  • noun The state of being soiled.
  • noun A stain.
  • noun Filth, sewage, or refuse.
  • noun Manure, especially human excrement, used as fertilizer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A marshy or wet place to which a hunted boar resorts for reruge; hence, a wet place, stream, or water sought for by other game, as deer.
  • To stall-feed with green food; feed for the purpose of fattening.
  • To solve; resolve.
  • To absolve; assoil.
  • noun Any foul matter upon another substance; foulness.
  • noun Stain; tarnish; spot; defilement or taint.
  • noun Manure; compost. Compare night-soil.
  • noun The ground; the earth.
  • noun Land; country; native land.
  • noun A mixture of fine earthy material with more or less organic matter resulting from the growth and decomposition of vegetation on the surface of the ground, or from the decay of animal matter (manure) artificially supplied.
  • noun In soldering, a mixture of size and lampblack applied around the parts to be joined to prevent the adhesion of melted solder.
  • noun Same as syle.
  • A dialectal variant of sile.
  • noun A dialectal variant of sill.
  • To make dirty on the surface; dirty; defile; tarnish; sully; smirch; contaminate.
  • To dung; manure.
  • To take on dirt; become soiled; take a soil or stain; tarnish: as, silver soils sooner than gold.
  • noun A young coal fish.
  • In plumbing, to paint (the ends of pipes about to be joined) by wiping (them) with soil. See soil, n., 4.

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

  • transitive verb 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Land; country.
  • noun Dung; fæces; compost; manure.
  • noun a pipe or drain for carrying off night soil.
  • transitive verb To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
  • noun 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.
  • noun to run into the mire or water; hence, to take refuge or shelter.
  • intransitive verb To become soiled.
  • noun That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain.
  • transitive verb To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile.
  • transitive verb To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.

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

  • noun uncountable A mixture of sand and organic material, used to support plant growth.
  • noun uncountable The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

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

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, a piece of ground (influenced in meaning by Latin solum, soil), from Latin solium, seat; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

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

[Middle English soilen, from Old French souiller, from Vulgar Latin *suculāre (from Late Latin suculus, diminutive of Latin sūs, pig; see sū- in Indo-European roots) or from souil, wallow of a wild boar (from Latin solium, seat, bathtub; see soil).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English soile, soyle, sule ("ground, earth"), partly from Anglo-Norman soyl ("bottom, ground, pavement"), from Latin solium ("seat, threshold, place"), mistaken for Latin solum ("ground, foundation, earth, sole of the foot"); and partly from Old English sol ("mud, mire, wet sand"), from Proto-Germanic *sulan (“mud, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Middle Low German söle ("dirt, mud"), Middle Dutch sol ("dirt, filth"), Middle High German sol, söl ("dirt, mud, mire"), Danish søle ("mud, muck"). See also sole, soal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English soilen, soulen, suylen ("to sully, make dirty"), partly from Old French soillier, souillier ("to soil, make dirty, wallow in mire"), from Old Frankish *sauljan, *sulljan (“to make dirty, soil”); partly from Old English solian, sylian ("to soil, make dirty"), from Proto-Germanic *sulwōnan, *sulwijanan, *saulijanan (“to soil, make dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Old Saxon sulian ("to soil, mire"), Middle Dutch soluwen, seulewen ("to soil, besmirch"), Old High German solagōn, bisullen ("to make dirty"), German dialectal sühlen ("to soil, make dirty"), Danish søle ("to make dirty, defile"), Swedish söla ("to soil, make dirty"), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bisauljan, "to bemire").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English soyl, from Old French soil, souil ("quagmire, marsh"), from Frankish *sōlja, *saulja ("mire, miry place, wallow"), from Proto-Germanic *sauljō (“mud, puddle, feces”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Old English syle, sylu, sylen ("miry place, wallow"), Old High German sol, gisol ("miry place"), German Suhle ("a wallow, mud pit, muddy pool").

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Examples

Comments

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  • So why don't people hate the word soil the same way they hate the word moist? Soil always reminds me of night soil or soylent green. Moist always reminds me of delicious cake.

    February 26, 2013

  • no I agree. It makes me think of the phrase soil oneself. Ew. Even though I find the phrase in one's own filth somehow hilarious.

    February 26, 2013

  • I love the expression night soil, especially in a honey wagon.

    Perhaps soil has more poise than moist.

    February 26, 2013

  • See also sile.

    June 29, 2022