discard
Americanverb (used with object)
-
discards,
present (3rd person singular)
-
discarded,
past participle, past
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discarding
present participle
-
to cast aside or dispose of; get rid of.
to discard an old hat.
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Cards.
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to throw out (a card or cards) from one's hand.
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to play (a card, not a trump, of a different suit from that of the card led).
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verb (used without object)
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discards,
present (3rd person singular)
-
discarded,
past participle, past
-
discarding
present participle
noun
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discards
plural
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the act of discarding.
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a person or thing that is cast out or rejected.
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Cards. a card or cards discarded.
verb
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(tr) to get rid of as useless or undesirable
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cards to throw out (a card or cards) from one's hand
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cards to play (a card not of the suit led nor a trump) when unable to follow suit
noun
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a person or thing that has been cast aside
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cards a discarded card
-
the act of discarding
Usage
What does discard mean? To discard something is to dispose of it or get rid of it. In card games, to discard a card is to get rid of it, such as by putting it in the discard pile. Discard can also be used as a noun referring to a card that has been discarded. It can also be used as a noun in a general way, but this is less common. Example: You should have thought about fixing up that old chair instead of just discarding it.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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discardsimple
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discardssimple
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have discardedperfect
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has discardedperfect
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am discardingprogressive
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are discardingprogressive
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is discardingprogressive
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have been discardingperfect progressive
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has been discardingperfect progressive
Past
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discardedsimple
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had discardedperfect
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was discardingprogressive
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were discardingprogressive
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had been discardingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of discard
Explanation
When you discard something, you get rid of it. If your closet is overflowing with clothes you haven't worn since 1992, why not discard some of them? When the verb discard first entered the English language in the sixteenth century, it referred to card playing and meant “to throw a card away.” Discard is still used to describe getting rid of unlucky cards, but today, you’ll also hear it used in a broader sense — we discard, or throw away, things that are undesirable or no longer useful. You might discard a worn out shoe, for example.
Vocabulary lists containing discard
Good Riddance
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The Circuit
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Stuart Little
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Dr Gibson said: "This isn't about perfection and this isn't about forcing people to eat unpalatable food – it's about recognising the nutritional value in components we've been conditioned to discard."
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
If the paper tears, he has to discard the lot, which is why you have to "be very delicate," the 34-year-old artisan explained.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026
These search engines and chatbots could help you place a price on items you are trying to discard.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
I never want to discard them again because other people won’t find them useful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
She picked up a card from the discard pile.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
They agree to meet again, but Kip completely discards his Western life.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
This measurement, which has critics and fans, discards the categories with the most extreme inflation readings on both the high and low ends.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
Typical of the movie’s scatterbrained nature is the small drama it creates, then discards, about Guthrie’s past: He lived in Germany for years, though no one seems interested in whether this ended before the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
The array of fossils were found about 25 years ago by palaeontologist Elizabeth Smith and her daughter Clytie while they were going through the discards of an opal mine.
From BBC ● May 27, 2024
I leave him leaning over the puzzle, his hair falling forward as he picks up pieces and discards them, one after one.
From "Rules" by Cynthia Lord
Any pretense at acceptance has long been discarded.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
Vast amounts of discarded plastic accumulate in the oceans, sometimes forming enormous garbage patches that threaten marine life.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
We must stop treating discarded land as a problem and begin seeing it as the solution to building America’s digital infrastructure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
In each workshop, Ingold encourages students to use discarded textile material to make art.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Slowly, the boxes downstairs began to empty and Ben piled them in the backyard where they lay like the discarded shells of reptiles.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
By discarding artistic hierarchy of any kind, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is stepping into an ongoing debate about what kind of work gets to be labeled “art.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
AFP reporters saw hundreds of people -- men, women and children -- entering Ceuta, discarding flotation rings and clothes used in their crossing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Base-editing technology could one day be used to help parents avoid discarding embryos in the IVF process.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
That is what United hierarchy will be discarding if they choose to replace Carrick in three games' time.
From BBC ● May 3, 2026
I read hard, discarding a writer as soon as I felt that I had grasped his point of view.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
