dung pitn.
/ˈdʌŋ pɪt/, U.S. /ˈdəŋ ˌpɪt/ 1. A pit in which farmyard manure and other waste is stored; a muck or slurry pit. More generally: a refuse pit; a (domestic) midden; an ash pit.Recorded earliest in † dung-pit reeking adj. Obsolete rare that smells or steams like a dung pit.In quot. 1610 in extended use with reference to hell.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > sanitation > provision of sewers > sewage treatment > [noun] > use of cesspools or lagoons > cesspool or pit
sink1413
midden pita1425
sinkhole1456
suspiralc1512
sentine1537
dung pit1598
muck pit1598
sinker1623
bumby1632
sump1680
sump hole1754
jaw-hole1760
recess1764
cesspool1783
dead-hole1856
soil-tank1861
cesspit1864
lagoon1909
sewage lagoon1930
1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie i. i. sig. B7v Those dreames, That Hylus takes, mid'st dung-pit reeking steames Of Athos hote house.
1610 R. Bernard Contempl. Pictures 115 This stinking Sidde and dung-pit crawles full of the venemous generation.
1778 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. Digest 22 A dung pit..preserves much of the fine part of the dung; and..forwards the digestion of that which is crude: and is far more eligible, perhaps, than a dung hill.
1809 Aberdeen Jrnl. 17 May The Stables..contain accommodation for 42 horses.., with a Byre and Dung Pit.
1861 E. B. Ramsay Reminisc. Sc. Life 2nd Ser. iv. 56 Committees..were formed..to induce the cottagers to remove their dunghills or dung-pits from too close a proximity to their doors or windows.
1916 Chronicle (Adelaide) 2 Dec. 9/1 Do not keep a freshly-castrated calf near the dungpit, where the flies are bred and abound.
1994 C. Upton et al. Surv. Eng. Dial.: Dict. & Gram. Dung-pit, 1. an artificial cess-pool on a farm [Devon]; 2. an ash-midden. [Cornwall].
2006 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 24 Oct. 3 A 15-foot deep dung pit in the farmyard had not been properly fenced.
2. A hole in the ground into which an animal habitually deposits its faeces.Originally and chiefly with reference to such pits dug and used by groups of badgers.
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1954 F. H. Lancum Badgers' Year i. 6 Probably the badger is the cleanest animal on earth... It even digs and uses special dung pits, well away from the sett.
1984 Jrnl. Appl. Ecol. 21 848 The only other scavenged carcasses attributable with reasonable certainty to badgers were those with dung pits or badger tracks alongside.
1997 M. G. L. Mills & L. Hes Compl. Bk. S. Afr. Mammals 208/2 The suricates scent mark frequently, and the whole group may defecate communally into a dung pit.
2016 Wharfedale Observer (Nexis) 20 Oct. A friend..tells me there is a dung-pit on the edge of their garden, full of purple-black material. Clearly his visiting badgers have been feasting on blackberries.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1598