cow dung
3
2.6
- noun
- /kaʊ dʌŋ/
- NSFW
:
estiércol de vaca
- There was a cool breeze, and it smelled like cow dung.
And when the cows poop, right, it's called a cow pie or a cow dung.
- And when the cows poop, right, it's called a cow pie or a cow dung.
- But we'll have the, the the smell of like cow dung wafting in, you know, the right cow dung in one nostril and like Polish sausage in another nostril.
Examples
-
Straw and cow dung are occasionally used to provide additional heat.
Academic text (1994) -
Cow dung just happens to be central to this way of saving the planet.
Blog text (7) -
You know it is impossible to walk on the roads without stepping into cow dung once in a while.
Blog text (32) -
Cow dung is a multifunctional commodity in most African communities, employed as fuel as well as a medium for wall decoration.
Academic text (1996) -
First, the women propped Sita up in a sitting position and wafted smoke from some smoldering cow dung under her nose.
Academic text (1990) -
The farm he returns to is dirty; the floor of the barn in which he sleeps is a wet, boggy mass of cow dung and urine-drenched straw.
Fiction book (1997) -
In the village of Cmcme in southeastern Turkey, dung cakes are made of cow dung mixed with straw, clay, and water, then shaped by hand or with a circular mold.
Academic text (2004) -
In India, people burn dried cow dung cakes to heat their homes.
-
There are cow dung cakes, which are used as fuel for cooking.
-
Straw and cow dung are often combined to provide additional heat.
Synonyms
109
5.1
Solid waste that people or animals pass from their body
66
2.9
Animal or plant waste spread on soil to help plants grow
57
2.8
The waste animals produce that is often used to fertilize soil
2
1.8
Dung from cows that people put on soil to help plants grow
1
4.8
Solid waste the body sends out through the anus after food is digested
How Useful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'cow' (an animal) + 'dung' (animal waste/manure), so 'cow dung' straightforwardly denotes the waste produced by a cow; its typical uses (fertilizer, fuel) are inferable from 'dung'. This noun+noun naming pattern for animal excrement is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Cow dung is a very literal compound: cow is the animal and dung is its solid waste. People have long collected and dried those pieces to use as 'fertilizer' for fields or as 'fuel' for cooking, so the phrase simply means the waste from cows used in these ways.