Idiom
dirty word
Meaning
The name of a topic that a person prefers not to hear or discuss.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“In this office, budget cuts are a dirty word.”
“After the failed merger, the name of the rival company became a dirty word among the staff.”
“For the traditionalists in the department, any mention of radical innovation was treated as a dirty word that threatened their established way of working.”
Examples
simple
“In this office, budget cuts are a dirty word.”
contextual
“After the failed merger, the name of the rival company became a dirty word among the staff.”
complex
“For the traditionalists in the department, any mention of radical innovation was treated as a dirty word that threatened their established way of working.”
Key words
Related idioms
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