a. [f. FILTH sb. + -Y1.]
1. Full of filth; besmeared or defiled with filth; dirty, foul, nasty, unclean. † The filthy parts: the private parts.
In early use often hardly more emphatic than the mod. dirty; it is now a violent expression of disgust, seldom employed in polite colloquial speech. Cf. the similar development in FILTH sb. 2 b; also in FOUL a.
1382. Wyclif, Zech. iii. 3. Jhesus was clothid with filthi clothis.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xcv. (1495), 842. A serpent … louyth fylthi places.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 17. The Kinge, the Quene, and the inhabitantes of the cytie [Calicut], haue almost no apparel, couering onely theyr fylthy partes.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxv. (1887), 132. How shall the poore boye do, that is to go home thorough stinking streates, and filthy lanes.
1682. Otway, Epil. 21 Apr.
| When, from the filthy Dunghill-faction bred, | |
| New form’d Rebellion durst rear up its head. |
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 509, 14 Oct., ¶ 3. The benches around are so filthy, that no one can sit down.
1832. Tennyson, Pal. of Art, 201.
| In filthy sloughs they roll a prurient skin, | |
| They graze and wallow, breed and sleep; | |
| And oft some brainless devil enters in, | |
| And drives them to the deep. |
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. xiv. 271. It was Hereward himself. Filthy, ragged: but Hereward.
† b. Of air or clouds: Murky, thick. Obs.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. iii. 31.
| Whiles yet the coole and temperate Wind of Grace | |
| O’re-blowes the filthy and contagious Clouds | |
| Of headly Murther, Spoyle, and Villany. | |
| Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. i. 12. | |
| Faire is foule, and foule is faire, | |
| Houer through the fogge and filthie ayre. |
2. Fond of filth, delighting in filth.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 18. The fylthy and stynkynge lust of the body.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., To the Reader. (1643), 1–2. Like a filthie flie she [Envie] seeks all over the body for a soare, and where she cannot find, she makes one.
1778. Bp. Louth, Transl. Isaiah, Notes (ed. 12), 156. Relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places.
3. Morally foul or polluted; obscene.
1535. Coverdale, Zeph. iii. 1. Wo to the abhominable, fylthie and cruel cite.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 49. I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes.
1611. Bible, Col. iii. 8. You also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 264. Being filthy, arch, and slie they quickly corrupted the families.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 271, 10 Jan., ¶ 4. The Matron … commended the Discretion of the Writer, for having thrown his filthy Thoughts into Greek.
1871. Alabaster, Wheel of Law, 213. From this heaven the filthy one, as the Siamese describe him, descends to the earth to tempt and excite to evil.
Mod. He could not stand their filthy talk.
† 4. Disgraceful, contemptible, low, mean, scurvy, disgusting. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10362. Neuer so filthy a fare hade fallyn in his hond.
1545. Brinkelow, Compl., xxiv. (1874), 65. Antychryst had fownd out that fylthy auricular confessyon to his gresy shauelings.
1577–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1805), II. 419. This murther of the king was one of the most filthiest acts that ever was done in Scotland.
1396. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. iii. 79. Doulas, filthy Doulas.
1610. Bp. Carleton, Jurisd., 166. Taking other errours from other filthie heretiques.
1648. Milton, Tenure Kings, 42. If they be the Ministers of Mammon in stead of Christ, and scandalize his Church with the filthy love of gaine.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., V. ii. 97. What’s his filthy Name?
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xvi. Thou filthy weaver of rotten worsted.
b. Filthy lucre: dishonourable gain = Gr. αἰσχρὸν κέρδος (Tit. i. 11). Sometimes jocularly used for: Money; also absol. ‘The filthy.’
1526–34. Tindale, Titus, i. 11. Teachinge thynges which they ought nott, be cause of filthy lucre.
1680. Hickeringill, Meroz, 30. They subvert whole Houses, teaching things that they ought not for filthy Lucres sake.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 116, 5 Jan., ¶ 7. I did not make that Judgment for the Sake of filthy Lucre.
1877. Blackmore, Cripps (1887), 225. I can catch my own without any appeal to ‘the Filthy.’
5. quasi-sb. A filthy person.
1681. Otway, Soldiers Fort., I. i. 2 Bul. Damn’d Whores, hout ye filthies.
6. quasi-adv. = FILTHILY.
1616. Rich Cabinet, 93 b. Modesty shutteth a young mans lippes, & encloseth a wantons eyes: so that he will not talke filthy, nor she looke lasciuiously.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xi. 180. The Brasilians have their Lips bored, wherein they weare stones so big and long, that they reach to their breast, which makes them shew filthy fine.
7. Comb.
1823. in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 318. Deal is a most villanous place. It is full of filthy-looking people.
1824. J. Symmons, trans. Æschylus’ Agamemnon, 370.
| The gorgeous halls of state, sprinkled with gold, | |
| Where filthy-handed Mammon dwells. |
