• IPA: /sɔɪl̩/, [sɔɪ̯ɫ̩]

From Middle English soile, soyle, sule, partly from Anglo-Norman soyl, from Latin solium, mistaken for Latin solum; and partly from Old English sol, from Proto-Germanic *sulą, from Proto-Indo-European *sūl-.

soil

1. (uncountable) A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.

   We bought a bag of soil for the houseplants.

2. (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
3. (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical, chemical, biological, and morphological properties and characteristics.
4. Country or territory.
   • 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:

     Except during the season in town, she spends her year in golfing, either at St Magnus or Pau, for, like all good Americans, she has long since abjured her native soil.

5. That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
6. A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
7. Dung; compost; manure.

   night soil

• (senses 1 to 3) dirt (US), earth

• solum

• French: sol, terre
• German: Erde, Grund
• Italian: suolo, terra
• Portuguese: solo
• Russian: земля́
• Spanish: suelo

• French: terre, sol
• German: Boden
• Italian: terreno
• Portuguese: solo, terra
• Russian: по́чва
• Spanish: suelo, tierra

• French: terre, sol
• Portuguese: solo
• Russian: по́чва

• French: terre, territoire
• Portuguese: solo
• Russian: земля́
• Spanish: tierra, suelo

From Middle English soilen, soulen, suylen, partly from Old French soillier, souillier, from Old Frankish *saulijan, *sulwijan; partly from Old English solian, sylian, from Proto-Germanic *sulwōną, *sulwijaną, *saulijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sūl-.

soil (soils, present participle soiling; simple past and past participle soiled)

1. (transitive) To make dirty.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, lines 1073–1080:

     […] Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know, / Which leaves us naked thus, of Honour void, / Of innocence, of Faith, of Puritie, / Our wonted Ornaments now ſoild and ſtaind, / And in our Faces evident the ſignes / Of foul concupiſcence ; whence eveil ſtore ; / Even ſhame, the laſt of evils ; of the firſt / Be ſure then.

2. (intransitive) To become dirty or soiled.

   Light colours soil sooner than dark ones.

3. (transitive, figurative) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     […] They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe / Soyle our addition, and indeede it takes / From our atchieuements, though perform’d at height / The pith and marrow of our attribute […]

4. (reflexive) To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed.

   The child was so scared she soiled herself.

5. To make invalid, to ruin.
6. To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.

• (to make dirty) smirch, besmirch, dirty

• French: salir, (literary) souiller
• German: verschmutzen, beschmutzen
• Italian: sporcare
• Portuguese: sujar
• Russian: па́чкать
• Spanish: ensuciar

• Portuguese: arruinar, estragar

soil (plural soils)

1. (uncountable, euphemistic) Faeces or urine etc. when found on clothes.
2. (countable, medicine) A bag containing soiled items.

• (faeces or urine etc.) dirt

• French: souillure

From Middle English soyl, from Old French soil, souil, from Frankish *sōlja, *saulja, from Proto-Germanic *saulijō, from Proto-Indo-European *sūl-.

soil (plural soils)

1. A wet or marshy place in which a boar or other such game seeks refuge when hunted.

From Old French saoler, saouler ("to satiate").

soil (soils, present participle soiling; simple past and past participle soiled)

1. To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (due to such food having the effect of purging them) to purge by feeding on green food.

   to soil a horse