rubble

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

/ ˈrʌb əl or for 3, 4, ˈru bəl /

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.

RELATED WORDS

debris, fill, scree, brash

Nearby words

rubbing alcohol, rubbish, rubbish bin, rubbishy, rubbity, rubble, rubblework, rubbly, rubbra, rubby, rubdown

Origin of rubble

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for rubble

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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST

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|DAILY BEAST
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
The lower part of the mound was built of large blocks of limestone and rubble, held loosely together with friable mortar.
The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras|Thomas William Francis Gann
Rubble masonry packing and grout ejected through pipes built into the arch were used to fill the voids above the roof.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910|James H. Brace and Francis Mason
Our tools and texts were gone, buried in the rubble with the bodies of fine young men.
This Crowded Earth|Robert Bloch
At first there was nothing to be seen but a lot of dust and rubble, so I lit a bit of candle and cleared this away.
The Lost Continent|C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

British Dictionary definitions for rubble

rubble

/ (ˈrʌbəl) /

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 for rubble

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