ordurous

English

Etymology

ordure +‎ -ous

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹd͡ʒʊɹəs/

Adjective

ordurous (comparative more ordurous, superlative most ordurous)

1. filthy; revolting.
   • 1604, Michael Drayton, Moses his Birth and Miracles, Book 1, in The Muses Elizium, London: John Waterson, 1630, p. 137,^[1]

     The bondage and seruilitie that lay

     On buried Israel (sunke in ordurous slime)

     His greeued spirit downe heauily doth way,

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 22, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‎^[2], New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 137:

     […] the plump brown face had been deflated and patted flat like a cow’s ordurous dropping.

   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 100:

     Whoopla laughter scuttling after him and a gold tooth winksome, bawdy dogstar in the ordurous jaws of fellatio major.

   • 1983, Bill Greenwell, limerick in E. O. Parrott (ed.) The Penguin Book of Limericks, 1984, p. 233,^[3]

     The reason we’re asked to endure

     A gutter press, smutty, impure,

     Is that old river Fleet,

     Whose name’s on the street,

     Is an ordurous, underground sewer.

References

• “ordurous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.