dirt yard

English

Alternative forms

• dirtyard

Noun

dirt yard (plural dirt yards)

1. (chiefly US) An unpaved yard that is kept free of grass and other vegetation.
   • 1943, Eudora Welty, “Livvie” in The Wide Net and Other Stories, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., p. 156,^[1]

     Out front was a clean dirt yard with every vestige of grass patiently uprooted and the ground scarred in deep whorls from the strike of Livvie’s broom.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, Chapter 5, p. 23,^[2]

     One summer morning, after I had swept the dirt yard of leaves, spearmint-gum wrappers and Vienna-sausage labels, I raked the yellow-red dirt, and made half-moons carefully, so that the design stood out clearly and mask-like.

   • 1987, Patricia Jones-Jackson, When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the Sea Islands, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, Chapter 1, p. 8,^[3]

     Maintaining a communal dirt yard was once routine for black families in the South, and it is also traditional in most West African villages.

   • 2002, Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, New York: Riverhead Books, Chapter 35, p. 419,^[4]

     Outside, the familiar darkness disturbed by smog and the distant grumble of dysfunctional Trabants, an empty dirtyard facing the rump of a low, gray municipal building, the only illumination provided by the light trailing from the bar’s open door.