soil 
soil (so̵il)
noun
- the surface layer of earth, supporting plant life
- any place for growth or development
- land; country; territory native soil
- ground or earth barren soil
Etymology: ME soile < Anglo-Fr soil, for OFr suel < L solum, floor, ground, soil
the soil
life and work on a farm
soil (so̵il)
transitive verb
- to make dirty, esp. on the surface
- to smirch or stain
- to bring disgrace upon
- to corrupt or defile; sully
Etymology: ME soilen < OFr souiller < VL *suculare < L suculus, dim. of sus, pig: see sow
intransitive verb
to become soiled or dirty
noun
- a soiled spot; stain; smirch
- manure used for fertilizing
- excrement, sewage, refuse, etc.
- a soiling or being soiled
Etymology: ME soile < OFr soil, pig sty < L suile < sus
soil (so̵il)
transitive verb
- to feed (livestock) on soilage
- to purge (livestock) by means of green food
Etymology: altered < ? OFr saoler < L satullare, to satiate < satullus, filled (with food), dim. of satur: see saturate
soil
v.
Converse of object
- drain: The plant prefers a sunny area with well draining soil.
- cultivate: However, seed may persist for a much shorter period in cultivated soil or near the soil surface.
- loosen: In cohesive soils, loosen the soil in the sides and bottom of the pit with a spade or fork.
- enrich: Lesley suggests enriching the soil with well rotted manure, or mushroom compost and adding blood, fish and bone before planting the hedge.
Adjective modifier
- fertile: Feeding: Tree Peonies prefer rich, fertile soil.
- well-drained: They prefer well-drained soil, sun or semi shade.
- sandy: Sandy soils with low clay content will be most rapidly affected.
- moist: Willow and poplar grow best in wet or moist soils.
- contaminated: Two further regulatory constraints to sustainable development of brownfield land relate to land filling of contaminated soil.
- acidic: The flowers grow up to 20cm in diameter with pink blooms in alkaline soils and blue blooms in acidic soils.
Modifies a noun
- erosion: The result is massive soil erosion: every year about 15,000 acres of fertile topsoil are washed away in Haiti.
- fertility: Another means by which soil fertility is restored in organic systems is through legumes.
- moisture: The soil moisture sensor measures the vacuum created by the soil by the lack of moisture.
- conditioner: The fiber is a much dryer material which would be applied as a soil conditioner or compost.
- improver: It is a fantastic way of turning compostable kitchen waste into a nutrient rich soil improver.
Noun used with modifier
- clay: What is the minimum depth of foundation in a clay soil?
- loam: An example of this two way transfer comes from an experiment on a silty clay loam soil ( pH 7.0 ) at Rothamsted.
- gley: In the infilled hollows between drumlins, gley and peaty gley soils form.
- draining: These plants require a free draining soil - and this being a raised bed, it is really well drained.
- peat: Seed buried in a peat soil for 20 years retained 8 % viability.
What makeswarinteresting forAmericansisthat wedon't fight waronoursoil,we don't have directexperience of it, so there's an openness about the meanings we give it.
Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain, Till, burst at length, each wat'ry head o'er flows,
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.
The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.
Every poet knows the pun is Pierian, that it springs from the same soil as the Musea matching and shifting of vowels and consonants, an adroit assonance sometimes derided as jackassonance.
Humannature will not flourish, any morethana potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out like shining from shook foil Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wearsman'ssmudgeand sharesman'ssmell: thesoil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
Let none admire That riches grow in hell; that soil may best Deserve the precious bane.
Hemight aswell plant anoak ina flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow cares!
Here they have no time for the fine graces of poetry, unless it freely grows in deep compulsion, like water in the well, woven into the texture of the soil in a strong pattern.
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