[a. F. excrément, ad. L. excrēment-um what is sifted out, f. excrē-, excernĕre (see EXCERN, EXCRETE), f. ex- out + cernĕre to sift.]
† 1. That which remains after a process of sifting or refining; the dregs, lees, refuse. In quots. pl. only. Obs.
1576. Baker, Jewell of Health, 161 b. When as in it shall no other be contayned or remaine, then the excrementes of the Sage.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. clxxiii. 501. Tartar, is the excrements of wine, which sticke to the vessell.
1698. Keill, Exam. Th. Earth (1734), 299. This Earth … he stiles the very dregs and excrements of nature.
2. Phys. a. ‘That which is cast out of the animal body by any of the natural emunctories’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); superfluous matter thrown off by the bodily organs; an excreted substance. Now rare in general sense.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Excrementum, the dregges or excrementes of digestion made in the bodie; as fleume, choler, melancholie, urine, sweate, snivell, spittel, milke, ordure.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 289. Why doe they not … offer us their Spittle, and other excrements of the body to be kissed?
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 356. This excrement [urine] is meerly proper to four-footed living-beasts.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., III. iv. 227. Corruption is the excrement of Wounds.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Nose, The Nose serves to … give a Passage to a Sort of Excrement, which we call Snot.
1745. Berkeley, Lett., Wks. 1871, IV. 305. The gout … throws off a sharp excrement from the blood to the limbs.
transf. 1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 180 b. Whether it [Manna] bee the sweate or excrement of the Heauens, or a certaine spittle of the starres.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Some hold ambergrise … an excrement of the sea.
b. esp. ‘The alvine fæces or the waste matter discharged from the bowels’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1884). Commonly pl. or collect. sing.; rarely sing. with an.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, II. (1541), 18 b. Breade haueing moch branne, fylleth the bealy with excrementes.
1555. Eden, Decades, 213. The excremente which they [crowes] auoyde, is a lyuynge worme.
1678. Marvell, Growth Popery, Wks. 1875, IV. 413. But … he is an ill woodman that knows not the size of the beast by the proportion of his excrement.
1704. Swift, T. Tub (1711), 209. A fly, driven from a Hony-pot, will … finish his Meal on an Excrement.
1843. J. A. Smith, Product. Farming (ed. 2), 88. The excrements of all animals contain less nitrogen than their food.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xiv. 326. They often void their sausage-shaped masses of excrement.
† c. Superfluous matter thrown off by a plant. Obs.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 43. Trees and plants … grow, bloome, and bring forth fruit; which fruit Aristotle sayth, cometh from them instead of excrement.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 29. How should an excrement [Cuckow-spitt] of so many several Plants, still breed one and the same Animal.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Gums, diverse juices, balms, &c. issuing spontaneously from their respective trees, are sometimes called excrements.
3. fig. (In 16–17th c. often as an opprobrious designation of persons.)
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., Author’s Pref. Abject sillie men we be … yea and if you will, certaine excrements and outcasts of the world.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 17. Ipta was thrust out for a base excrement from the family of Gilead.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Poems (1775), 142. Thou common-shore of this poetic town, Where all our excrements of wit are thrown.
