garbage

[gahr-bij]

noun

1. discarded animal and vegetable matter, as from a kitchen; refuse.

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

3. a bin or other receptacle for discarded matter, especially kitchen waste; garbage can.

   Hey, who threw my leftover pizza in the garbage?

   Synonyms: taradiddle, malarkey, hogwash, claptrap, bunkum, nonsense, waste, trash, rubbish, junk, refuse, litter

4. anything that is contemptibly worthless, inferior, or vile.

   There's nothing but garbage on TV tonight.

5. worthless talk; lies; foolishness.

6. Informal.,  any unnecessary item added to something else, as for appearance only; garnish.

   I'll have an Old Fashioned, but without the garbage.

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

8. Computers.,  meaningless or unwanted data.

   That program was not properly debugged and produced nothing but garbage.

garbage

/ ˈɡɑːbɪdʒ /

noun

1. worthless, useless, or unwanted matter

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

3. computing invalid data

4. informal,  nonsense

Word History and Origins

Origin of garbage¹

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; garble, -age

Word History and Origins

Origin of garbage¹

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

Example Sentences

Now, the larger format provides enough backroom space to sort donations, so garbage bags of donated clothing don’t spill out onto the sidewalk.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“Out in the wild, they’re trying to build up their calories through berries and insects. But when they come across garbage in a neighborhood, that’s all the calories they need in one spot.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

There are underground fires burning in at least two landfills in Southern California — smoldering chemical reactions that are incinerating buried garbage, releasing toxic fumes and spewing liquid waste.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He had bought the land in 2018 for just $156,000, cleared the garbage on it, and built the home along with a large shop for his vehicles, including an excavator.

Read more on MarketWatch

A vast canyon of buried garbage has been smoldering inside a landfill in the Santa Clarita Valley, inducing geysers of liquid waste onto the surface and noxious fumes into the air.

Read more on Los Angeles Times