filth
/fɪlθ
/noun [mass noun]
1Disgusting dirt: stagnant pools of filth...
- The familiar stench of filth, dirt, blood, and sweat filled his nose.
- Litter, rubbish, filth and grime - eyesores like these are a common sight in Bolton.
- A moment later a piece of mud falling from his hair into his face prompted him to just lean forward and dunk his head under the water, a dark cloud of filth polluting the water around him.
Synonyms
dirt, muck, grime, mud, mire, sludge, slime, ooze, foul matter;
excrement, excreta, dung, manure, ordure, sewage;
rubbish, refuse, garbage, trash, dross, scum;
pollution, contamination, defilement, decay, putrefaction, putrescence;
squalor, squalidness, sordidness, shabbiness, sleaziness, filthiness, uncleanness, foulness, nastiness
informal crud, grot, gunge, grunge, yuck
1.1Obscene and offensive language or printed material: some calls were vitriolic, accusing us of publishing pornography and filth...
- It contains a few rude bits which helped to get the book censored in 1922 for ‘unmitigated filth and obscenity’.
- I'm glad to have about eight seconds here to express my complete disgust at the degree to which filth and sleaze and vulgarity and every kind of offensive language is now dominant in our language.
- Since the first one appeared in 1964, there's been a debate about whether it's filth, smut, porn, tasteful erotica or high art.
Synonyms
pornography, pornographic literature/films/videos, dirty books, smut, vice;
obscenity, indecency, corruption, lewdness, rudeness, vulgarity, coarseness, crudeness, grossness, vileness, nastiness, immorality
informal porn, hard porn, soft porn, porno, raunchiness
1.2Corrupt behaviour; decadence.However, observations of the High Street late at night indicate the noise, filth and anti-social behaviour increase exponentially with the hour....
- Got back on Sunday evening and chucked a full on 5 year old temper tantrum at having to be back in this noisy, filth ridden corrupt town!
- Still, the purification rituals of the city involve a suspicion running through all economic classes that vile filth corrupts that which they are not.
1.3Used as a term of abuse for a person or people one greatly despises: you and all the others like you are filth...
- Somehow, I managed to get to my feet, I was filthy now, only now could he call me, filth, and get a way with it.
- Now he strode wearily and dispassionately through the enemy filth, cutting down those that stood in his path and ignoring all others.
- Didn't your mother ever teach you not to gossip about others, you disgusting piece of filth?
1.4 (as plural noun the filth) British informal, derogatory The police.Are rudimentary disguises sufficient to fool the filth?...
- They obviously figured she looked crazed too, why else would she jump back like she'd just been burnt when she spotted the filth.
- How does she know that only 7 per cent go to the filth?
Origin
Old English fȳlth 'rotting matter, rottenness', also 'corruption, obscenity', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vuilte, also to foul.