A heap of dung and refuse on a farm; historically used metaphorically to mean a place of squalor or a symbol of degradation.
From 'dung' (Old English dung) + 'hill' (Old English hyll). The compound appears in literature dating back to Middle English; Shakespeare and the Bible both use it metaphorically.
In Shakespeare's time, a dunghill could be literal—heaps of excrement that literally stank and bred disease—but writers loved using it metaphorically for morally corrupt places, making it one of English's most pungent insults.
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