dunghill

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a heap of animal dung or refuse, especially one kept for use as manure

   Farm waste was piled on the dunghill until it could be spread over the fields.

2. 2
   noun

   a filthy, degraded, or contemptible place or condition; figurative and literary

   The satirist portrayed the corrupt court as a moral dunghill.

A compound of dung + hill, recorded since Middle English. The literal heap supplied manure for fields; its dirt and smell made it an enduring metaphor for a vile place or degraded condition.

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