dung

noun \ ˈdəŋ \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of dung

1 : the feces of an animal : manure

2 : something repulsive

—

dungy

play \ˈdəŋ-ē\ adjective

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Examples of dung in a Sentence

researchers tracked the wild gorillas by following the piles of dung

Recent Examples of dung from the Web

Those who must burn wood and dung are prodded to do so in more efficient stoves.

— The Economist, "Household smoke may be the world’s deadliest environmental hazard," 5 Apr. 2018
The town’s two suspension bridges, wide enough for a few people, are clogged with Indians in saris, Westerners in harem pants, honking motorbikes, dung-dropping cows and mooching monkeys.

— patrick scott, WSJ, "Rafting the Ganges River: An Adrenaline Rush With Divine Rewards," 3 Apr. 2018
Back in 2006, his breakout hit for the Discovery Channel, Man vs. Wild, had him charging alone through savage landscapes, famously consuming everything from maggots to elephant dung to his own pee.

— michael roberts, Outside Online, "How Bear Grylls Keeps on Surviving," 20 Mar. 2018
Pre-human preservation A team of researchers in Australia and New Zealand, led by paleobiologist Alexander Boast, extracted DNA from 23 ancient dung samples.

— cathleen o'grady, Ars Technica, "DNA from the poop of extinct four-meter-tall birds reveals lost ecosystem," 15 Feb. 2018
Okpokwasili tells an intriguing tale about a young girl who wakes up every morning as something different — a cat, a feather, elephant dung.

— karen campbell, BostonGlobe.com, "‘Poor People’s TV Room’ mines Nigeria’s sad history of gender oppression," 11 Mar. 2018
The last transition may be due, in part, to the extinction of mammoths and other big grazers, Retallack explains, which supplied nutrients in their dung and kept the grasses healthy by trampling and munching on it.

— maya wei-haas, Smithsonian, "Rare Mammoth Tracks Reveal an Intimate Portrait of Herd Life," 26 Feb. 2018
Samples were also sent to biologist Sam Wasser, of the University of Washington, who extracted DNA from elephant dung all over Africa in the 1990s to map elephant genetics across the continent.

— mary esch, The Seattle Times, "Seized ivory probed for clues that could help save elephants," 15 Jan. 2018
The aim was to reduce the use of polluting fuels such as wood and dried cow dung cakes that cause 1.3 million premature deaths in India every year.

— Bloomberg.com, "India Halts Cooking Gas Price Increases to Boost Use," 28 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dung.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.