Search the Dictionary

(such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse.

A pipe or drain for carrying off night soil.

Stain; foulness. [R.] Bacon.

Destitute of soil or mold.

Stain; pollution. Shak. Then fearing rust or soilure, fashioned for it A case of silk. Tennyson.

Dirty; soiled. [Obs.] Fuller.

Any one of various soils found in arid and semiarid regions, containing an unusual amount of soluble mineral salts which effloresce in the form of a powder or crust (usually white) in dry weather following rains or irrigation. The basis of these salts is mainly soda with a smaller amount of potash, and usually a little…

To set free; to release. [Archaic] Till from her hands the spright assoiled is. Spenser.

Act of assoiling, or state of being assoiled; absolution; acquittal.

To absolve; to acquit by sentence of court. God assoilzie him for the sin of bloodshed. Sir W. Scott.

; -- esp. applied to a party which was active during the period 1846-1856. [U.S.] -- Free"soil`er, n. [U.S.] -- Free"-soil`ism, n. [U.S.]

The bed, or stratum, of earth which lies immediately beneath the surface soil. Subsoil plow, a plow having a share and standard but no moldboard. It follows in the furrow made by an ordinary plow, and loosens the soil to an additional depth without bringing it to the surface. Knight.

The upper layer of soil; surface soil.

The act or art of taking off the top soil of land before an excavation or embankment is begun.

The soil beneath the surface; understratum; subsoil.

Acquired. [Obs.] He died not in his acquisitive, but in his native soil. Wotton.

Held to service as attached to the soil; -- said of feudal serfs.

To supply or impregnate with common air; as, to aërate soil; to aërate water.

Exposure to the free action of the air; airing; as, aëration of soil, of spawn, etc.

To bring together; to collect into a mass or sum. "The aggregated soil." Milton.