Recent Examples on the WebSeveral parents also said their children uncharacteristically began urinating and defecating in their rooms because they were locked out of bathrooms overnight.—Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 8 May 2024 Death causes muscle relaxation and can lead animals to defecate or urinate post mortem.—Harri Weber, Popular Science, 8 May 2024 Eventually, Doyle said, that person defecated on himself.—Jaclyn Diaz, NPR, 8 May 2024 The 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
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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