To make (something) dirty.
"The spilled coffee managed to dirty the entire white carpet within minutes."
In plain English: To dirty something means to make it covered with dirt or other unpleasant messes.
"The old kitchen floor was dirty with years of neglect."
Usage: Use "dirty" as a verb when you want to describe the specific act of making something unclean or contaminated with filth. Avoid using it simply to mean "to spoil" or "to damage," as those actions require more precise synonyms like ruin or mar.
soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime
"dirty unswept sidewalks"
"a child in dirty overalls"
"dirty slums"
"piles of dirty dishes"
"put his dirty feet on the clean sheet"
"wore an unclean shirt"
"mining is a dirty job"
"Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves"
(of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency
"dirty words"
"a dirty old man"
"dirty books and movies"
"boys telling dirty jokes"
"has a dirty mouth"
spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination
"the air near the foundry was always dirty"
"a dirty bomb releases enormous amounts of long-lived radioactive fallout"
contaminated with infecting organisms
"dirty wounds"
"obliged to go into infected rooms"
violating accepted standards or rules
"a dirty fighter"
"used foul means to gain power"
"a nasty unsporting serve"
"fined for unsportsmanlike behavior"
Unclean; covered with or containing unpleasant substances such as dirt or grime.
"After playing in the mud all afternoon, my sneakers were completely dirty and needed a good scrubbing."
In plain English: Dirty means covered with dirt or grime that makes something look unclean and unpleasant.
"The dog shook itself off and left muddy footprints all over the clean rug."
Usage: Use "dirty" to describe something covered in unwanted substances like mud, dust, or grease that needs washing. Avoid using it metaphorically for moral failings unless you specifically intend that figurative meaning.
In a dirty manner.
"The prankster pulled off the elaborate trick in such a dirty manner that everyone knew exactly who did it."
In plain English: When used as an adverb, dirty means to make something unclean by adding dirt or grime to it.
"He worked dirty to save money on his lunch."
Usage: Do not use "dirty" as an adverb to mean roughly or violently; instead, use it only when describing something that is done in a filthy or unclean way. For actions like hitting hard, the standard English adverbs are "roughly" or "violently," never "dirty."
The word dirty comes from Middle English, where it originally combined the root for "dirt" with a suffix meaning "full of." It traveled into modern English with this same sense of being covered in filth.