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garbage

[ gahr-bij ]
/ ˈgɑr bɪdʒ /
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noun

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RELATED WORDS

junk, trash, filth, swill, scrap, rubble, muck, dross, debris, offal, rubbish, dregs, slop, waste, detritus, sewage, dreck, sweepings

Nearby words

  1. garam masala,
  2. garamond,
  3. garand,
  4. garand rifle,
  5. garb,
  6. garbage can,
  7. garbage collection,
  8. garbage in, garbage out,
  9. garbage man,
  10. garbage truck

Origin of garbage

1400–50; late Middle English: discarded parts of butchered fowls; compared with garbelage the removal of waste from spices (< Anglo-French, Old French; see garble, -age) or Old French garbage tax on sheaves of grain, though shift of sense, and form in first case, is unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for garbage

British Dictionary definitions for garbage

garbage

/ (ˈɡɑːbɪdʒ) /

noun

worthless, useless, or unwanted matter
Also called: rubbish discarded or waste matter; refuse
computing invalid data
informal nonsense

Word Origin for garbage

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

Word Origin and History for garbage

garbage

n.

early 15c., "giblets of a fowl, waste parts of an animal," later confused with garble in its sense of "siftings, refuse." Perhaps some senses derive from Old French garbe "a bundle of sheaves, entrails," from Proto-Germanic *garba- (cf. Dutch garf, German garbe "sheaf"), from PIE *ghrebh- "a handful, a grasp." Sense of "refuse, filth" is first attested 1580s; used figuratively for "worthless stuff" from 1590s. Garbology "study of waste as a social science" is from 1976.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper