dig up dirt

dig for dirt

dig the dirt

If you say that one person is digging up dirt on another, you mean that the first is trying to find out something that may cause harm to the second. You can also say that someone is digging for dirt, or, in British English, that they are digging the dirt.

They hired a detective firm to dig up dirt on rival.

Scoop-hungry reporters have done everything from going through trash cans digging for dirt on celebrities to paying prostitutes to lure Members of Parliament into compromising positions.

You can describe this activity as dirt-digging.

the a dirt-digging James is framed by a corrupt district attorney and sentenced for manslaughter.

dish the dirt

If you say that one person dishes the dirt on another, you disapprove of the way that the first person spreads stories about the second, especially when they say things that may embarrass or upset that person, or damage their reputation.

Many politicians who maintain that their private lives are their own, are not above dishing the dirt on a fellow politician, if it suits their own political or personal purposes.

In his autobiography Life Is Too was no worse than many of the screen icons of his age. Eight wives on and nudging 80, he has treasured memories of his relationships with the beautiful Ava Gardner and the tragic Judy Garland. the singer, dancer, comedian, and actor holds nothing back. He dishes the dirt on his buddies and smudges his own shoes with admissions of womanising, gambling, and drugs.

People sometimes describe this activity as dirt-dishing.

Some publishers believe that by speaking out as he did, has pushed up the potential value of any dirt-dishing memoirs he cares to write.

do someone dirt    

do the dirt on someone

If someone has done you dirt or has done the dirt on you, they have betrayed you or treated you very badly. This expression is used in American English; the British expression is do the dirty on someone.

They tell me you have done me dirt. Tell me it ain't true.

There is an unofficial biography out of Nancy Reagan which is doing the dirt on her all over the place.