garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

a

: food waste

b

: discarded or useless material

2

a

: trash sense 1b

b

: inaccurate or useless data

Synonyms

• chaff
• deadwood
• debris
• dreck
• drek
• dross
• dust
• effluvium
• effluvia
• junk
• litter
• offal
• offscouring
• raffle
• refuse
• riffraff
• rubbish
• scrap
• spilth
• trash
• truck
• waste

Examples of garbage in a Sentence

The park was littered with garbage.

Please take out the garbage.

Raccoons were going through the garbage.

Throw the can in the garbage.

If you ask me, what he said is a bunch of garbage.

Recent Examples on the Web

More:Harris breaks with Biden over 'garbage' comment about Trump's supporters after reluctance to distance herself More:Trump pounces on Biden's 'garbage' comment. —Joey Garrison, USA TODAY, 1 Nov. 2024

That didn’t stop the former president from leaning into the gaffe by donning a garbage worker vest and climbing into a garbage truck to speak with the media at a campaign event earlier this week. —Shawn Raymundo, The Arizona Republic, 1 Nov. 2024

Trump seeks to press advantage from Biden’s ‘garbage’ gaffe. —Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 31 Oct. 2024

Politics Did Biden mean to call Trump supporters ‘garbage,’ or just stumble defending Puerto Rico? Oct. 30, 2024 California’s need for federal disaster assistance over the next four years is virtually guaranteed. —Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, "poultry organs and body parts used for food, poultry refuse," borrowed from Anglo-French *garbage (implied in sergant garbagere "kitchen servant tasked with plucking and cleaning poultry"), of obscure origin

Note: On morphological, semantic, or chronological grounds unlikely to be related to Anglo-French garbeler, Middle English garbelen "to remove (impurities) from spices" (see garble entry 1) or to Middle French gaburge, grabuge "quarrel, brawl." The Anglo-French collocation sergant garbagere indicates currency of the word as early as 1318 (Household Ordinances of Edward II).

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing garbage

• a lot of garbage/nonsense
• garbage can
• garbage disposal
• garbage time
• garbage truck

Kids Definition

garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

: food waste

2

: discarded or useless material : refuse

3

: something inferior, worthless, or useless

a show that's garbage