night soil
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Often in exchange for a fee paid to each household, farmers collected what was called night soil at regular intervals to fashion into fertile compost.
From Salon • Dec. 21, 2021
The problems of chamber pots — also known as “jerries, night soil, commodes, slop jars, close stools and thunder mugs” — also contributed to this noisome mix.
From Washington Post • Nov. 4, 2016
They dumped their waste into brick-lined cesspits that would be emptied by the night soil men, who sold it as fertilizer or dumped it off Dung Pier into the Thames.
From The Guardian • Jul. 15, 2014
The Japanese were sensitive to the handling of pathogens, and they knew how to compost the night soil before they used it on plants.
From Scientific American • Apr. 5, 2013
You return to find your houses combed spotless of spoiled crumbs, your bedding free of lice, your woodlots cleansed of night soil, your hen coops rid of chicken mites.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
