to eat dirt

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.Any foul of filthy substance, as excrement, mud, dust, etc.; whatever, adhering to anything, renders it foul or unclean; earth; as, a wagonload of dirt. [1913 Webster]

Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.— Is. lvii. 20.[1913 Webster]

2.Meanness; sordidness. [1913 Webster]

Honors . . . thrown away upon dirt and infamy.— Melmoth.[1913 Webster]

3.In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing. [1913 Webster]

Dirt bed (Geom.), a layer of clayey earth forming a stratum in a geological formation. Dirt beds are common among the coal measures.

Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. --Humboldt. (b) (Med.) Same as Chthonophagia.

Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. --Otway (1684).

To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie. [1913 Webster]