From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, noun [OF. soil, souil, F. souille, from OF. soillier, F. souiller. See {Soil} to make dirty.] A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
As deer, being stuck, fly through many soils, Yet still the shaft sticks fast. --Marston.
{To take soil}, to run into the mire or water; hence, to take refuge or shelter.
O, sir, have you taken soil here? It is well a man may reach you after three hours' running. --B. Jonson.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\ (soil), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Soiled} (soild); p. pr. & vb. n. {Soiling}.] [OF. saoler, saouler, to satiate, F. so[^u]ler, L. satullare, fr. satullus, dim. of satur sated. See {Satire}.] To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an inclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, noun [OE. soile, F. sol, fr. L. solum bottom, soil; but the word has probably been influenced in form by soil a miry place. Cf. {Saloon}, {Soil} a miry place, {Sole} of the foot.]
1. The upper stratum of the earth; the mold, or that compound substance which furnishes nutriment to plants, or which is particularly adapted to support and nourish them.
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave Thee, native soil? --Milton.
3. Dung; f[ae]ces; compost; manure; as, night soil.
Improve land by dung and other sort of soils. --Mortimer.
{Soil pipe}, a pipe or drain for carrying off night soil.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, verb (used with an object) To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
Men . . . soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop. --South.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, verb (used with an object)[OE. soilen, OF. soillier, F. souiller, (assumed) LL. suculare, fr. L. sucula a little pig, dim. of sus a swine. See {Sow}, noun]
1. To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile; as, to soil a garment with dust.
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained. --Milton.
2. To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully. --Shak.
Syn: To foul; dirt; dirty; begrime; bemire; bespatter; besmear; daub; bedaub; stain; tarnish; sully; defile; pollute.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, verb (used without an object) To become soiled; as, light colors soil sooner than dark ones.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Soil \Soil\, noun [See {Soil} to make dirty, {Soil} a miry place.] That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain.
A lady's honor . . . will not bear a soil. --Dryden.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: the state of being covered with unclean things [syn: {dirt}, {filth}, {grime}, {stain}, {grease}, {grunge}]
2: the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock [syn: {dirt}]
3: material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use); "the land had never been plowed"; "good agricultural soil" [syn: {land}, {ground}]
4: the geographical area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state; "American troops were stationed on Japanese soil" [syn: {territory}]
verb
1: make soiled, filthy, or dirty; "don't soil your clothes when you play outside!" [syn: {dirty}, {begrime}, {grime}, {colly}, {bemire}] [ant: {clean}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
185 Moby Thesaurus words for "soil": abuse, acres, adobe, airspace, alluvion, alluvium, arable land, area, attaint, bedaub, befoul, begrime, belt, benasty, besmear, besmirch, besmoke, besmutch, besoil, bespatter, bestain, betray, black, blacken, blot, blotch, blow upon, blur, bole, brand, call names, censure, china clay, clay, clod, confines, contaminate, continental shelf, corridor, corrupt, country, crust, darken, daub, debauch, deceive, defame, defile, deflower, demoralize, denigrate, department, despoil, dirt, dirty, disapprove, discolor, disgrace, disparage, district, division, drabble, draggle, dregs, dry land, dust, earth, engage in personalities, environs, excrement, expose, expose to infamy, filth, force, foul, freehold, gibbet, glebe, grassland, ground, gumbo, hang in effigy, heap dirt upon, heartland, hinterland, humus, kaolin, land, landholdings, lead astray, lithosphere, loam, loess, marginal land, mark, marl, mess, milieu, mire, mislead, mold, motherland, muck, muckrake, mucky, mud, muddy, murk, nasty, neighborhood, offshore rights, part, parts, pillory, place, pollute, porcelain clay, precincts, premises, purlieus, quarter, rape, ravage, ravish, real estate, real property, red clay, refuse, region, regolith, reprimand, revile, ruin, salient, sand, scorch, sear, section, seduce, silt, singe, slubber, sludge, slur, smear, smirch, smoke, smooch, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, sod, soilage, soilure, space, spoil, spot, stain, stigmatize, subaerial deposit, subsoil, sully, taint, tar, tarnish, terra, terra firma, terrain, territory, the country, three-mile limit, throw mud at, till, topsoil, turf, twelve-mile limit, vicinage, vicinity, vilify, violate, vitiate, waste matter, woodland, zone
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