you can't polish a turd
Something inherently unfavourable or unpleasant cannot be improved.
turd
/tɜːd/
noun 2verb 1
Collocations
4ADJ.
all, big, fellow, rock-solid, rolling, trapped
VERB + TURD
deposit, drop, perfumes, took
TURD + NOUN
bag, ball, burrow, roses, table
PREP.
in, on, with
Definitions
noun
1
A piece of solid feces.
Ugh, there are turds in the toilet that haven’t been flushed away.
Thy teeth more comely than two dirty rakes are, / Thy breath is stronger than a douzen jakes are. / A fart for all perfumes, a turd for roses / Smell men but thee, they wish them selves all noses.
2
A worthless person or thing.
Last year, he arrested some crankhead turd, brings him down to the station. The guy's cuffed and Fred sets him down on the bench in the booking room. Now you know Fred, right? Not an abusive guy. Never even talks smack to suspects. Well, this turd, he starts kicking and shouting, […]
"Don't be a turd," Freddi says. "Don't be a Tones Turd." / "If telling the truth makes a man a turd, then a turd I shall be." / "Yeah," Freddi says. "You'll go down in history. Tones the Truth-Telling Turd. Kids will learn about you in school."
verb
1
To defecate.
You ought to see that owlet […] . We brought it to table and it turded in F's salad, it sits on your finger and squeaks like Peggy does when she gets tipsy.
[P]iano dropped chords like a Wolfean horse turding in the steamy Brooklyn winter morn
Thesaurus
Idioms & Phrases
turd in the punchbowl
Something that ruins or spoils everything else; a nuisance or problem; an unpleasant or disagreeable detail.
King Shit of Turd Island
An individual with pretensions of great importance.
Back in Belding, he was always the tough guy, the one who rode around in his dad's Pontiac Lemans with the vinyl top and the automatic on the floor. He drove that car like he was t
polish a turd
To work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless or impossible task; to try to perfect what is inherently bad.
Near-synonym: put lipstick on a pig
Example Bank
601
Ugh, there are turds in the toilet that haven’t been flushed away.
Wiktionary02
Thy teeth more comely than two dirty rakes are, / Thy breath is stronger than a douzen jakes are. / A fart for all perfumes, a turd for roses / Smell men but thee, they wish them selves all noses.
Wiktionary03
How gladly would I have ſtopt the filthy mouth of that long-tongued fellow with a turd!
Wiktionary04
You ought to see that owlet […] . We brought it to table and it turded in F's salad, it sits on your finger and squeaks like Peggy does when she gets tipsy.
Wiktionary05
[P]iano dropped chords like a Wolfean horse turding in the steamy Brooklyn winter morn
Wiktionary06
A fart is the tortured scream of a trapped turd.
Tatoeba · #1188067Usage Notes
i Register
In some senses, turd is marked as informal, vulgar, slang, humorous, rare. Watch for register when choosing this word.
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