dirtying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of dirty.

   Constant handling was dirtying the manuscript's fragile pages.

   Dirtying the whole kitchen this thoroughly takes real effort.

   Note

   One -ing form serves two grammatical roles and carries every sense of the verb. After be it builds the progressive, with or without an object: hands dirtying a page, a white shirt dirtying quickly. It also reaches past soil to reputation and truth, as in dirtying someone's name or dirtying the facts. When it takes an article and a plural, it has become the countable noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of soiling something or making it dirty.

   The gradual dirtying of the river took years to reverse.

   Repeated dirtying of the upholstery eventually ruined the chair.

   Similarsoiling, pollution, contamination, fouling

   Oppositecleaning, cleansing

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted: it takes a plural, dirtyings, and names separate acts of soiling. Gershon Legman's No Laughing Matter (1982) uses it that way, writing of "food-dirtyings and fecal dirtyings" in jokes that try to defile. A modifier naming the substance can sit in front, and an of-phrase can name what gets soiled, as in the dirtying of a river.

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