- dirty
- dirty adj Dirty, filthy, foul, nasty, squalid mean conspicuously unclean or impure.Dirty is the general term for what is sullied or defiled with dirt of any kind{
dirty hands
}{dirty linen
}{dirty streets
}{he was dirty and bloodstained and his clothes were bedaubed with mud and weeds— Sayers
}Filthy is a much stronger term than dirty in its suggestion of offensiveness; it often suggests gradually accumulated dirt which besmears or begrimes rather than merely soils{he was constantly drunk, filthy beyond all powers of decent expression— Stephen
}{a filthy hovel
}Foul carries a still stronger implication of revolting offensiveness; it often implies an unwholesome or malodorous state resulting from the decay of putrescible matter{a foul sewer
}{a foul dungeon
}{a foul pond
}{the Arabs explained that the Turks had thrown dead camels into the pool to make the water foul— T. E. Lawrence
}It may come near to loathsome or disgusting (a foul sight)Nasty applies chiefly to what is repugnant to a person who is fastidious about cleanliness{a nasty ship
}{a nasty odor
}{the care of pigs is nasty work
}Sometimes nasty is softened to a mere synonym for "objectionable, disagreeable"{a nasty fall
}{a nasty temper
}{be nasty to someone
}Squalid adds to the idea of dirtiness or filth that of extreme sloven-liness or neglect{squalid poverty
}{the East, so squalid and splendid, so pestilent and so poetic— Wharton
}All of these terms may imply moral uncleanness or baseness or obscenity.Dirty, however, stresses meanness or despicability{the creature's at his dirty work again— Pope
}Filthy and foul imply disgusting obscenity, filthy stressing the presence of obscenity and foul, its ugliness{filthy talk
}{a foul jest
}Nasty implies a peculiarly offensive unpleasantness{a nasty mind
}{he hated it as a gentleman hates to hear a nasty story— E. E. Hale
}{squandered all their virile energy on greasy slave girls and nasty Asiatic-Greek prostitutes— Graves
}Squalid implies sordidness as well as baseness{the squalid scenes and situations through which Thackeray portrays the malign motives and unclean soul of Becky Sharp— Eliot
}The first four terms are used also of weather, meaning the opposite of clear and thereby implying rainy, snowy, stormy, or foggy weather.Antonyms: cleandirty vb *soil, sully, tarnish, foul, befoul, smirch, besmirch, grime, begrimeAnalogous words: pollute, defile, *contaminate: *spot, spatter
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
