Learn English – “Down and dirty” – what does it mean

expressionsmeaning-in-context

I am walking on the mud, down and dirty!

What does "down" mean?

Best Answer

In your passage

down and dirty

literally refers to the mud being on ground level ("down") and being "dirty" (since it is mud).

However, it is a play on a well know idiom: "down and dirty".

To get

down and dirty

is to

to get "down" to lowest level of detail (the nitty gritty, the nuts and bolts)

and

to get "dirty"
get one's hands "dirty"

can mean to do something oneself, like a mechanic working on an engine gets into the details and gets their hands "dirty"

here

it can also mean to be unscrupulous, a cheater

a "dirty" dog

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