digging up dirt
Seeking damaging information
Digging up dirt means searching for damaging or embarrassing information about someone, typically to use against them: Opposition researchers spent months digging up dirt on the candidate.
The dirt is scandalous material—affairs, financial improprieties, past mistakes.
The phrase implies deliberate excavation of what someone wanted to keep buried.
- digUnearth by shoveling
- shovelTool for moving earth
- rumorUnconfirmed circulating story
- investigationFormal examination of facts
- spadeFlat-bladed digging implement
exposé · hit piece · skeleton in the closet · artifact · whistleblowing · hearsay · inquiry · backbiting · trash talking · surveillance · smear campaign · muckraking · relic · stratigraphy · preservation · deep dive · sleuthing · private investigator
digging up dirtreputation management
Shaping public perception strategically
damage control · whitewashing · covering up · spin doctoring · public relations
digging up dirtcovering up
Hiding wrongdoing from others
sweeping under the rug · hushing up · covering tracks · keeping secrets · stonewalling
digging up dirthaving someone's back
Providing reliable support
character witness · endorsing · championing · running interference
digging, digger, diggers, dirt, dirty, dirtier, dirtiest, dirtiness, dirties