MIDDEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does midden mean? 

• MIDDEN (noun)
  The noun MIDDEN has 2 senses:

1. (archeology) a mound of domestic refuse containing shells and animal bones marking the site of a prehistoric settlement

2. a heap of dung or refuse

  Familiarity information: MIDDEN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MIDDEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(archeology) a mound of domestic refuse containing shells and animal bones marking the site of a prehistoric settlement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

eitchen midden; kitchen midden; midden

Hypernyms ("midden" is a kind of...):

dump; dumpsite; garbage dump; rubbish dump; trash dump; waste-yard; wasteyard (a piece of land where waste materials are dumped)

Domain category:

archaeology; archeology (the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A heap of dung or refuse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

dunghill; midden; muckheap; muckhill

Hypernyms ("midden" is a kind of...):

agglomerate; cumulation; cumulus; heap; mound; pile (a collection of objects laid on top of each other)

 Context examples 

At last the fat man seemed to weary of it, for he set to work quietly upon his meal, while his opponent, as proud as the rooster who is left unchallenged upon the midden, crowed away in a last long burst of quotation and deduction.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An environmental remnant of the past (pollen grains, tree rings, lake sediments, pack rat middens, ice cores, coral skeletons) that assist researchers in deciphering past climate conditions through the use of scientifically proven dating techniques.

(Paleoenvironmental proxy, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)