droppings
part of speech
noun (droppings — plural)
meaning for a pupil
1) The solid waste (poo) of animals and birds. tree →
2) Dirt or rubbish that falls down from above, such as from a gutter. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and nature, droppings help you find out which animals live in an area, like rabbits, mice or owls. In hygiene and safety lessons, do not touch droppings; they can carry germs, so wash your hands after being outside or with pets. Phrases: bird droppings, mouse droppings, rabbit droppings, sheep droppings.
examples
- We found rabbit droppings in the field. tree →
- Bird droppings landed on the car. tree →
- Mouse droppings showed us there were mice in the shed. tree →
- Don't touch animal droppings. tree →
- Wash your hands after cleaning the guinea pig's cage. tree →
- Owl pellets are not droppings. tree →
- He had jumped into the dust-bin, where all sorts of rubbish were lying: cabbage-stalks, dust, and rain-droppings that had fallen down from the gutter under the roof. tree →
note
Almost always plural: "droppings". It comes from "drop". It is a polite word for animal poo. Hygiene: droppings can spread disease, so wear gloves when cleaning cages and wash hands well.
In the corpora
- Cassowaries swallow fruit whole and spread the seeds of over 200 kinds of plants in their droppings.
- In some caves dwarf crocodiles have turned orange, possibly from living among bat droppings.
- Some giant pitcher plants in Borneo are used as toilets by tree shrews, and the plant feeds on their droppings.
- Cave hyenas cracked bones with powerful jaws and dragged them to their dens, which scientists find by gnawed bones and fossil droppings.
- Mum opens the cupboard and finds tiny dark droppings like grains of rice and a chewed hole in the cereal packet.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «droppings» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.