Definition

1. Noun:
   • Solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels; feces, dung, excrement. This is the primary and most literal meaning of the word.
   • Filth, obscenity, or foul language. This is a figurative, literary, or archaic usage, referring to something considered morally or verbally filthy.

Usage

• As a noun referring to feces: The word is a formal, literary, or euphemistic term for bodily waste. It is not common in everyday conversation.
• As a noun referring to obscenity: This usage is rare and highly literary, often used to condemn vulgar speech or writing.

Examples

• Literal meaning (feces):
  • The streets of the medieval city were foul with ordure and refuse.
  • The stable was cleaned daily to remove the animal ordure.
• Figurative meaning (obscenity):
  • He condemned the pamphlet as nothing but political ordure. (This usage is now very uncommon.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is often used in historical, literary, or descriptive contexts to evoke a sense of disgust or extreme filth, whether physical or moral.
• It can appear in translations of older texts or in stylized prose.

Variants and Related Words

• Ordurous (adjective): Resembling or consisting of ordure; filthy.
  • The ordurous conditions of the alley were a health hazard.

Synonyms

• Feces: The most standard technical term.
• Excrement: A formal, biological term.
• Dung: Specifically refers to the feces of animals.
• Manure: Animal dung used as fertilizer.
• Droppings: The feces of small animals or birds.
• Filth: For the figurative sense; general dirt or moral corruption.

Antonyms

• Cleanliness
• Purity
• Decency (for the figurative sense)

Notes

• 'Ordure' is not a phrasal verb and does not have common idiomatic expressions associated with it in modern English. Its use is almost entirely confined to its core definition as a synonym for excrement. The figurative sense is largely obsolete.

Noun

1. solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels