Recent Examples on the WebThe anger boiled over in 2013, when residents began complaining about people sleeping in alleyways and urinating and defecating in the city’s downtown area, a busy corridor of restaurants, coffee shops and businesses.—Abbie Vansickle, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024 Another rather amusing survival tactic is a bit akin to necessary constipation: Newborn okapi don’t defecate until at least a month after birth, lest a nearby leopard sniff out the vulnerable baby.—Katie Liu, Discover Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024 And in October, an EasyJet flight from the Spanish island of Tenerife to London was canceled after a passenger defecated on the bathroom floor.—Erin Clements, Peoplemag, 10 Apr. 2024 At one point, there were more than a dozen tents across the street, and occupants used drugs, threw bottles of urine onto school property and openly defecated, Hernandez said.—Calmatters, The Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2024 The flight made it to cruising altitude before the animal defecated.—Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024 In the cooler months of the year — historically from April to September — snakes become sluggish and may not eat, drink, defecate or even move for weeks at a time.—Natasha Frost David Maurice Smith, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2024 Fact check: Old prank video misrepresented as migrant defecating in public
The debit cards will be for migrant families living in hotel rooms the city secured as a last-resort housing option.—Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 13 Mar. 2024 Wear gloves and promptly wash your hands after cleaning the litter box or being outdoors where a cat may have defecated.—Bill Sullivan, Discover Magazine, 2 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'defecate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Latin defaecatus, past participle of defaecare, from de- + faec-, faex dregs, lees
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