rubble

[ruhb-uh l or for 3, 4, roo-buh l]

See more synonyms for rubble on Thesaurus.com

noun

broken bits and pieces of anything, as that which is demolished: Bombing reduced the town to rubble.
any solid substance, as ice, in irregularly broken pieces.
rough fragments of broken stone, formed by geological processes, in quarrying, etc., and sometimes used in masonry.

masonry built of rough fragments of broken stone.

Origin of rubble

1350–1400; Middle English rubel, robil < ?; cf. rubbish

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

debris fill scree brash

Examples from the Web for rubble

Contemporary Examples

Pages from the Quran fluttered in the air before landing gently on the rubble.
The Dangerous Drug-Funded Secret War Between Iran and Pakistan
Umar Farooq
December 29, 2014
And there are a few nice things buried beneath the rubble that I could use in my apartment.
I’m a Digital Hoarder
Lizzie Crocker
December 17, 2014
If we enter with hammer in hand, we may leave with merely dust and rubble on our faces.
For Rent: Priceless Historic Sites
Elinor Betesh
November 16, 2014
Within 10 seconds, his target vanishes in a muted cloud of smoke and rubble 7,000 miles away.
Ethan Hawke's 'Good Kill': A Searing Indictment of America's Drone Warfare Obsession
Marlow Stern
September 6, 2014
They broke off into groups of a dozen and got to work collecting bricks and salvageable materials from the rubble.
After the Genocide, Rwanda’s Widows Aging Alone
Nina Strochlic
August 31, 2014

Historical Examples

Into it he dropped the ring, covering it again with all the leafy "rubble and wreck" of the wood.
The Coryston Family
Mrs. Humphry Ward
Where there had been shops and hotels, there were now heaps of rubble and calcined bricks.
Changing Winds
St. John G. Ervine
Why was she stumbling about amongst the rubble and catching her dress in brambles and burrs?
Howards End
E. M. Forster
Only bleak, black and gray hills of rock and rubble were there, no cars, no life.
Pleasant Journey
Richard F. Thieme
He could have been lying in the rubble of that alley for an hour—or a second.
The K-Factor
Harry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)

British Dictionary definitions for rubble

rubble

noun

fragments of broken stones, bricks, etc
any fragmented solid material, esp the debris from ruined buildings
quarrying the weathered surface layer of rock
Also called: rubblework masonry constructed of broken pieces of rock, stone, etc

Derived Formsrubbly, adjective

Word Origin

C14 robyl; perhaps related to Middle English rubben to rub, or to rubbish

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 rubble

n.

"rough, irregular stones broken from larger masses," late 14c., robeyl, from Anglo-French *robel "bits of broken stone," probably related to rubbish [OED], but also possibly from Old French robe (see rob).

rubble

Origin of .css-1fxfie5{font-size:22px;}@media (max-width:768px){.css-1fxfie5{font-size:18px;margin:0 10px 10px 0;word-break:break-all;word-wrap:break-word;-webkit-hyphens:auto;-moz-hyphens:auto;-ms-hyphens:auto;hyphens:auto;line-height:22px;}}rubble

Related Words

Examples from the Web for rubble

Contemporary Examples

Pages from the Quran fluttered in the air before landing gently on the rubble.

And there are a few nice things buried beneath the rubble that I could use in my apartment.

If we enter with hammer in hand, we may leave with merely dust and rubble on our faces.

Within 10 seconds, his target vanishes in a muted cloud of smoke and rubble 7,000 miles away.

They broke off into groups of a dozen and got to work collecting bricks and salvageable materials from the rubble.

Historical Examples

Into it he dropped the ring, covering it again with all the leafy "rubble and wreck" of the wood.

Where there had been shops and hotels, there were now heaps of rubble and calcined bricks.

Why was she stumbling about amongst the rubble and catching her dress in brambles and burrs?

Only bleak, black and gray hills of rock and rubble were there, no cars, no life.

He could have been lying in the rubble of that alley for an hour—or a second.

rubble

Word Origin

Word Origin and History for rubble

n.

Origin of rubble