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Soil   /sɔɪl/   Listen
noun
Soil  n.  
1.
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.
2.
Land; country. "Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave Thee, native soil?"
3.
Dung; faeces; compost; manure; as, night soil. "Improve land by dung and other sort of soils."
Soil pipe, a pipe or drain for carrying off night soil.



Soil  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. "As deer, being stuck, fly through many soils, Yet still the shaft sticks fast."
To take soil, to run into the mire or water; hence, to take refuge or shelter. "O, sir, have you taken soil here? It is well a man may reach you after three hours' running."



Soil  n.  That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain. "A lady's honor... will not bear a soil."



verb
Soil  v. t.  (past & past part. soiled; pres. part. soiling)  To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an inclosure, 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.



Soil  v. t.  To enrich with soil or muck; to manure. "Men... soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop."



Soil  v. t.  
1.
To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile; as, to soil a garment with dust. "Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained."
2.
To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
Synonyms: To foul; dirt; dirty; begrime; bemire; bespatter; besmear; daub; bedaub; stain; tarnish; sully; defile; pollute.



Soil  v. i.  To become soiled; as, light colors soil sooner than dark ones.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Soil" Quotes from Famous Books



... incompatible with his having been, as his panegyrists contend, an affectionate friend, husband, and father; a very good fellow when his vanity or his whims were not touched; and inexhaustibly fertile in the kind of rough profusion of flower and weed that uncultivated soil frequently produces. But it most certainly is also not inconsistent, but on the contrary highly consistent, with the picture drawn by Lockhart in his great book; and it shows how, to say the least and mildest, the faults and foibles of the curious personage ...
— Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 • George Saintsbury

... immediately, but as a rule we find it true in the natural world that there is delay before the seed comes to maturity. It is growing all the time, however; first the little green shoot breaking through the soil, then the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The farmer is not disappointed because all his crops do not spring up in a night like mushrooms. He looks forward with patience, knowing that the reaping time will ...
— Sowing and Reaping • Dwight Moody

... bent lower, and found what seemed to be a small brass handle, half covered with earth. She dug the earth away with her hands, and pulled and tugged at the handle for some time without success; but at length the sullen soil yielded, and she staggered back against the wheel with a small metal box in her hands. No time now to examine the prize, be it what it might. Into the apron bag it went, and on top of it went the puppy, yelping dismally. Then slowly, carefully, ...
— Queen Hildegarde • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

... in small lonely groves. The low, almost stemless Yucca baccata, with beautiful lily flowers and sweet banana-like fruit, prized by the Indians, is common along the canyon rim, growing on lean, rocky soil beneath mountain mahogany, nut pines, and junipers, beside dense flowery mats of Spiraea caespitosa and the beautiful pinnate-leaved Spiraea millefolia. The nut pine (Pinus edulis) scattered along the upper slopes and roofs of the canyon buildings, ...
— Steep Trails • John Muir

... particularly neat and handsome residences standing in luxuriant grounds, such as those occupied by the Superintendent, Bishop, Judge, etc. The suburbs were extending on all sides with the fencing in of farms, erection of homesteads, and conversion of the native soil into land suitable for growing English ...
— Five Years in New Zealand - 1859 to 1864 • Robert B. Booth


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