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dirty story

dirty story

1 8.1
A joke or story about sex that people find rude
  • noun
  • Offensive
translation icon : historia subida de tono
  • At the reunion, he told a dirty story that brought back fond memories of our youth.

And he said this this guy's going to one day tell dirty stories on a podcast.

Examples

  • He entertained us with a funny yet provocative dirty story that made everyone laugh.

  • The fact you don't get excited over my dirty stories... is because you can't relate to them.

  • I like a dirty story.

  • Every line tells a dirty story.

  • I'll tell you dirty stories, huh?

  • And he said this this guy's going to one day tell dirty stories on a podcast.

  • What's that, a dirty story?

  • You're going to read me a dirty story I'll bet.

  • And all his attempts at telling dirty stories were such disastrous failures that he had abandoned the genre.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Always tellin' dirty stories to keep the buyers laughin'.

Synonyms

dirty joke
vsdirty story
  • Offensive
8 7.2

A joke that talks about sex or private parts in a rude way

includes longer narratives as well as brief humorous remarks
blue story
vsdirty story
  • Offensive
9.9

A rude joke about sex that can offend people

focuses more on sexual content than on merely improper language
blue joke
vsdirty story
  • Offensive
8.6

A joke about sex or other adult subjects that may offend some people

is more openly indecent or obscene rather than merely risque

Surface Forms

dirty story singular
dirty stories plural

Morphology

dirty + story

The meaning 'a story or joke that contains indecent or obscene content' is directly and compositionally derived from 'dirty' (in the sense 'lewd/indecent') + 'story' (a narrative). This adjective+noun pattern is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common way to mark sexual/indecent content, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should infer the meaning.

Etymology

Dirty story comes from calling rude or sexual things dirty, like something covered in dirt, so you can picture a story that is 'not clean'. That's why dirty story means a tale that is 'indecent'.