scrapyard

American  

[skrap-yahrd] / ˈskræpˌjɑrd /

noun

1. a business with a large space, including outdoor space, to store items or parts purchased from customers for resale as raw material.

   The carmaker sold more than 5,700 pounds of reclaimed copper wire to the scrapyard.

---

Etymology

Origin of scrapyard

First recorded in 1860–65; scrap ¹ ( def. ) + yard ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scrapyard

"What is waste to us became something valuable in his hands," scrapyard owner Bostan Khan told AFP.

From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026

In Louisville, Ky., law enforcement arrested seven people in an alleged copper-theft scheme based on a tip from a scrapyard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025

It escaped the scrapyard for the second time when it was used to mark the centenary of London's Waterloo station in 1948.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2023

Immediately we see them at the gates of Boomtown — as in “the booms” that destroyed the world — a relatively civilized scrapyard city.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2023

In the early 1990s, Issaquah native Lewis Carpenter found it in a Czech scrapyard and paid $40,000 to get the seven-ton thing back home.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2023