scrap heap
Americannoun
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a pile of old, discarded material, as metal.
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a place for dumping old, useless things.
Etymology
Origin of scrap heap
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.
Parts intended for the scrap heap were used on the Dreamliner, we are told.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Among the items destined for the scrap heap is the gantry, which once sheltered Soyuz rockets from the tropical weather.
From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026
"It's absolutely infuriating that a treatable condition like this is ignored and that women are put on the scrap heap," said Lipoedema UK's head of research Dr Lesley Steinitz.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2025
This scrap heap of hulking male humanity landed perhaps seven feet away from me, and I wasn't in danger of being plowed over myself, as sideline photographers sometimes are.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2023
I knew I should be drunk with gratitude that I, an ignorant girl who’d crawled out of a scrap heap, should be allowed to study there, but I couldn’t summon the fervor.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Definitions 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.
