| Soil 1. (v. t.) To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse. 2. (n.) The upper stratum of the earth; the mold, or that compound substance which furnishes nutriment to plants, or which is particularly adapted to support and nourish them. 3. (n.) Land; country. 4. (n.) Dung; feces; compost; manure; as, night soil. 5. (v. t.) To enrich with soil or muck; to manure. 6. (n.) A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer. 7. (n.) To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile; as, to soil a garment with dust. 8. (n.) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully. 9. (v. i.) To become soiled; as, light colors soil sooner than dark ones. 10. (n.) That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain. Thesaurus Entries abuse, acres, adobe, airspace, alluvion, alluvium, arable land, area, attaint, bedaub, befoul, begrime, belt, benasty, besmear, besmirch, besmoke, besmutch, besoil, bespatter, bestain, betray, black, blacken, blot, blotch, blow upon, blur, bole, brand, call names, censure, china clay, clay, clod, confines, contaminate, continental shelf, corridor, corrupt, country, crust, darken, daub, debauch, deceive, defame, defile, deflower, demoralize, denigrate, department, despoil, dirt, dirty, disapprove, discolor, disgrace, disparage, district, division, drabble, draggle, dregs, dry land, dust, earth, engage in personalities, environs, excrement, expose, expose to infamy, filth, force, foul, freehold, gibbet, glebe, grassland, ground, gumbo, hang in effigy, heap dirt upon, heartland, hinterland, humus, kaolin, land, landholdings, lead astray, lithosphere, loam, loess, marginal land, mark, marl, mess, milieu, mire, mislead, mold, motherland, muck, muckrake, mucky, mud, muddy, murk, nasty, neighborhood, offshore rights, part, parts, pillory, place, pollute, porcelain clay, precincts, premises, purlieus, quarter, rape, ravage, ravish, real estate, real property, red clay, refuse, region, regolith, reprimand, revile, ruin, salient, sand, scorch, sear, section, seduce, silt, singe, slubber, sludge, slur, smear, smirch, smoke, smooch, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, sod, soilage, soilure, space, spoil, spot, stain, stigmatize, subaerial deposit, subsoil, sully, taint, tar, tarnish, terra, terra firma, terrain, territory, the country, three-mile limit, throw mud at, till, topsoil, turf, twelve-mile limit, vicinage, vicinity, vilify, violate, vitiate, waste matter, woodland, zone |