dish the dirt
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Spread scandalous information.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He is often hired to inform Fleet Street about client views or, less charitably, to dish the dirt on opponents.
His death inspired crook Delroy (Lennie James) to dish the dirt on the gangsters: redemption and a tidy ending.
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 “dish the dirt” mean?
Spread scandalous information.
Is “dish the dirt” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.