Dirty
Executive summary
The English word "dirty" primarily denotes something that is not clean or is soiled, but it carries a wide bouquet of figurative senses — from indecency to dishonesty — that vary by register and context [1] [2]. Contemporary dictionaries and lexicons present overlapping core meanings (physical uncleanliness), secondary meanings (sexual or offensive content), and figurative senses (corrupt, unfair), each illustrated with examples across usage guides [3] [4] [5].
1. Core meaning: material uncleanliness and everyday usage
Most standard lexicographical entries define "dirty" first and foremost as "not clean" or "covered with dirt" — a basic, physical condition applied to clothes, surfaces, or environments — reflected in Merriam‑Webster, Cambridge, Oxford and Vocabulary resources that give examples like dirty clothes, dirty diapers, or dirty city air [1] [3] [6] [7].
2. Secondary senses: indecency and offensive sexual content
Dictionaries consistently record a secondary, non‑literal meaning tied to sexual or obscene connotations — e.g., "dirty jokes" or a "dirty mind" — as an established usage distinct from merely being unclean, and noted explicitly in Cambridge, Oxford Learner’s, and Britannica entries [3] [4] [2].
3. Moral and ethical extensions: dishonest, unfair, corrupt
Beyond physical and sexual senses, "dirty" functions figuratively to describe actions or tactics that are unfair, immoral, or corrupt — phrases like "do someone dirty" meaning to treat someone unfairly are cataloged in Collins and reflected in learner dictionaries that list "not honest; unfair" among senses [8] [9] [5].
4. Nuance and synonym fields: degrees of offensiveness and emphasis
Thesaural and dictionary notes show how "dirty" sits within a field of near‑synonyms that carry different emphases: "filthy" often suggests stronger, more accumulated grime or offensiveness, "nasty" a repugnance or offensiveness, while "squalid" adds neglect to dirtiness; Merriam‑Webster’s thesaurus commentary and Dictionary.com highlight these gradations [10] [11] [12].
5. Idioms, pragmatics and specialized senses
Usage guides and dictionaries record idiomatic and specialized uses — "to get your hands dirty" meaning to undertake unpleasant work, "dirty" in technical senses (historical extensions into law, aviation, jazz as noted by OED), and colloquial senses like "quick and dirty" for a provisional solution — demonstrating the word’s adaptability across registers and domains [2] [6] [3].
6. Documentation limits and contested readings
The consulted lexical sources converge on core and extended meanings but do not resolve questions about cultural connotations, frequency changes over time, or regional differences in acceptability; those require corpus studies or sociolinguistic surveys not present in the set of dictionary entries used here, so conclusions are limited to documented dictionary senses and illustrative examples [1] [6] [10].
7. Why the plurality of senses matters
Because "dirty" can name physical filth, sexual indecency, unfair behavior, or metaphorical moral stain, using it in reportage or argument carries rhetorical force — it can stigmatize, moralize, or simply describe — and dictionaries show that interpreters must weigh context and audience when the word is deployed [3] [8] [4].
8. Final assessment
Lexicographic evidence across Merriam‑Webster, Cambridge, Oxford, Collins, Dictionary.com, Britannica and related resources establishes "dirty" as a core vocabulary item with multiple, well‑documented senses (physical uncleanliness; indecent sexual content; dishonesty/unfairness) and a rich idiomatic life; further empirical work would be required to map shifts in usage intensity, regional preferences, or sociopolitical loading beyond these reference descriptions [1] [3] [11] [6] [2] [8].