English · Idiom Attested

dig up dirt

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Discover damaging information about someone.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

tìm ra thông tin gây hại về ai đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

This was interpreted in the Clinton camp as the Major government attempting to give Bush a hand by digging up dirt on Clinton as a Vietnam draft - dodger or pot - smoker.

Just imagine him saying that to a reporter trying to dig up more dirt … trying to stir it up a bit.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “dig up dirt” mean?

Discover damaging information about someone.

Is “dig up dirt” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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