manure

From Middle English maynouren, manuren (“to supervise, toil”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman meinourer and Old French manovrer (whence also English maneuver), from Vulgar Latin *manuoperare (“work by hand”), from Latin manū (“by hand”) + operārī (“to work”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈnjʊə/, /məˈnjɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈn(j)ʊɹ/, /məˈn(j)u.ɚ/

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• Hyphenation: ma‧nure
• Hyphenation: ma‧nu‧re
• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), -uːə(ɹ)

manure (third-person singular simple present manures, present participle manuring, simple past and past participle manured)

1. To cultivate by manual labor; to till; hence, to develop by culture.
   • Surrey

     to whom we gave the strand for to manure

   • John Donne

     Manure thyself then; to thyself be improved; / And with vain, outward things be no more moved.

2. To apply manure (as fertilizer or soil improver).

   The farmer manured his fallow field.

   • Shakespeare

     The blood of English shall manure the ground.

• manurable

• to fertilize

manure (countable and uncountable, plural manures)

1. Animal excrement, especially that of common domestic farm animals and when used as fertilizer. Generally speaking, from cows, horses, sheep, pigs and chickens.
   • 2014 April 21, Mary Keen, “You can still teach an old gardener new tricks: Even the hardiest of us gardeners occasionally learn useful new techniques [print version: Gardening is always ready to teach even the hardiest of us a few new tricks, 19 April 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, page G7:

     [T]he very wet winter will have washed much of the goodness out of the soil. Homemade compost and the load of manure we get from a friendly farmer may not be enough to compensate for what has leached from the ground.

2. Any fertilizing substance, whether of animal origin or not.
   • Sir Humphry Davy

     Malt dust consists chiefly of the infant radicle separated from the grain. I have never made any experiment upon this manure; but there is great reason to suppose it must contain saccharine matter; and this will account for its powerful effects.

3. (euphemistic) Rubbish; nonsense; bullshit.
   • 2005, Ginny Aiken, Design on a Crime (page 217)

     “You know the police think I killed Marge, don't you?”
     “What a load of manure! I couldn't believe it when I read the paper.”

• humanure

• fertilizer
• muck