garbage

[ gahr-bij ]
See synonyms for garbage on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. discarded animal and vegetable matter, as from a kitchen; refuse.

  2. any matter that is no longer wanted or needed; trash.

  1. a bin or other receptacle for discarded matter, especially kitchen waste; garbage can: Hey, who threw my leftover pizza in the garbage?

  2. anything that is contemptibly worthless, inferior, or vile: There's nothing but garbage on TV tonight.

  3. worthless talk; lies; foolishness.

  4. Informal. any unnecessary item added to something else, as for appearance only; garnish: I'll have an Old Fashioned, but without the garbage.

  5. useless artificial satellites or parts of rockets floating in space, as satellites that are no longer transmitting information or rocket boosters jettisoned in flight.

  6. Computers. meaningless or unwanted data: That program was not properly debugged and produced nothing but garbage.

Origin of garbage

1
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English garbage, gabage “discarded parts of butchered fowls; entrails of fowls used for human food”; compare with Middle English garbelage “removal of refuse from spices,” Middle English garbelure “refuse found in spices,” and Old French garbage (also jarbage ) “tax on sheaves of grain,” but the shift of sense here is unclear; further origin uncertain; see also garble, -age

Other words for garbage

Words Nearby garbage

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use garbage in a sentence

  • Above all, the doctor—the doctor and the purulent trash and garbage of his pharmacopoeia!

    The Pocket R.L.S. | Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Foiled in this attempt they began to pelt them with garbage, so that soon their white robes were stained and filthy.

    Fair Margaret | H. Rider Haggard
  • He would give me such words as "combustion," "garbage disposal," "bonded indebtedness" and so on.

    The Iron Puddler | James J. Davis
  • The pigsties have no more smell than the stables, because the manure is removed, and no garbage is allowed to accumulate.

    The Hills and the Vale | Richard Jefferies
  • He had a couple of dingy wash-boilers which he had picked up from the big garbage-dump near the race-track.

    Tramping on Life | Harry Kemp

British Dictionary definitions for garbage

garbage

/ (ˈɡɑːbɪdʒ) /


noun
  1. worthless, useless, or unwanted matter

  2. Also called: rubbish discarded or waste matter; refuse

  1. computing invalid data

  2. informal nonsense

Origin of garbage

1
C15: probably from Anglo-French garbelage removal of discarded matter, of uncertain origin; compare Old Italian garbuglio confusion

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012