dung

/dəŋ/

/dəŋ/

Other forms: dunged; dunging; dungs

Dung means animal droppings or waste. If you work at an elephant sanctuary, you're likely to spend a lot of time shoveling up elephant dung.

Dung is a tidy word for an untidy substance — animal poop. When farmers talk about cow dung or chicken dung, they'll probably call it manure instead. Some dung causes problems, like the runoff of pig dung into lakes and rivers, while other dung is used to help fertilize vegetable gardens. Dung is an Old English word, from a Germanic root — in Old High German, a tung was an underground room that was covered with dung for warmth.

Definitions of dung

1. noun

   fecal matter of animals
   synonyms: droppings, muck

   types:

   buffalo chip, chip, cow chip, cow dung

   a piece of dried bovine dung

   coprolite

   fossil excrement; petrified dung

   pigeon droppings

   droppings of pigeons

   cow pie, cowpie

   fecal matter of a cow

   type of:

   BM, dejection, faecal matter, faeces, fecal matter, feces, ordure, stool

   solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels
2. verb

   fertilize or dress with dung
   “you must dung the land”

   type of:

   feed, fertilise, fertilize

   provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to
3. verb

   defecate; used of animals
   type of:

   ca-ca, defecate, make, stool

   have a bowel movement