throw dirt
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.14 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make derogatory or malicious allegations, particularly about people in public life.
Example Sentences
- "1759, John Wesley, letter to John Downes, Rector of St. Michael's, Wood Street, read at Wesley Center Online at https://web.archive.org/web/20060903061313/http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/letters/1766.htm on 14 Oct 06. I hope...that you are ignorant of the whole affair, and are so bold only because you are blind...And blind enough; so that you blunder on through thick and thin, bespattering all that come in your way, according to the old, laudable maxim, 'Throw dirt enough, and some will stick.'"
- "Jortin however has pithily remarked, "It requires something of a hand even to throw dirt." The Reviewer, though no tyro, is still a bungler in that trade."
- "The editors condemned the claims of one of the board members, that he was "acting in full accord with [what] the Forward was preaching," as an attempt to discredit the paper's principled opposition to the war, and characterized his plea as "an effort to throw dirt upon the entire East Side.""
Inflected Forms
throws dirt (present, singular)
throwing dirt (participle, present)
threw dirt (past)
thrown dirt (participle, past)