as in dung
solid matter discharged from an animal's alimentary canal polite people do not discuss ordure in public

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ordure The script was based on the 1979 French play and subsequent 1982 film Le père Noël est une ordure (Santa Claus Is a Stinker). Glenn Garner, Deadline, 21 Dec. 2024 On the face of it, packing the ordure of millions into open-air mounds is a terrible approach to a more livable planet, particularly in a part of the world where scavengers don’t comb through them for every salable scrap. Curbed, 12 Aug. 2022 Even a seemingly natural savannah, the African grasslands in the Mara-Serengeti, has benefited from the healing powers of animal ordure, produced by the livestock of human herders thousands of years ago. Bill Andrews, Discover Magazine, 29 Aug. 2018 My group first watched a video, which explained that the plant’s effluent would be released into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a thirty-mile-long waterway built in the late nineteenth century to rid the city of its ordure. Elizabeth Kolbert, The New York Review of Books, 9 Feb. 2022 Poking at the ordure with a stick, Cipollone pointed out the beech mast and berries on which the bear had fed. Christopher Preston, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2020 President Nicolás Manuro: Creating ordure out of chaos. Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2019 In gardens, the scent of frangipani carries on the damp breeze; in cities, that unmistakably Indian blend of ordure, asphalt and spice. The Economist, 27 June 2019 At the bottom of the tube sat a half-inch of what looked like frozen mud, but was, in fact, orca ordure. Kate Brooks, Smithsonian, 30 Sep. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ordure
Noun
  • Ancient Egyptians also revered dung beetles because the rolling of the dung balls reminded them of the sun god rolling the sun across the sky, according to the Israel Museum.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Apr. 2025
  • Living in the wood economy means relying on wood, dung, and other basic bioenergy.
    Ted Nordhaus, Foreign Affairs, 30 Aug. 2016
Noun
  • To minimize outdoor pollution during poor air quality, officials urged people to carpool; telecommute; reduce trips or take public transportation; slow down when driving on dirt roads; and stabilize loose soils.
    Anna Skinner, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Teams will eventually undertake soil studies and drone-based, multispectral ground sensing to measure potential improvements to soil quality and carbon capture capacity on farmland that uses these techniques.
    Robin Roenker, USA Today, 18 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Crew members come up to Landau to discuss the process of making the floor resemble real dirt and mud, whether a test-your-strength carnival machine can be struck in time with the music, as well as drafts of a digital rendering of the sky that will grace the LED screen at the back of the stage.
    Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2025
  • In fact, there’s plenty of dirt and animals trotting around the house — a tangible way of indicating the family’s lack of wealth compared to characters like Darcy and his friend, Charles Bingley.
    Abigail Lee, Variety, 18 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Ordure.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ordure. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

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