wastebasket

[ weyst-bas-kit, -bah-skit ]

noun

1. a standing basket for wastepaper, small items of trash, etc.

wastebasket

/ ˈweɪstˌbɑːskɪt /

noun

1. an open receptacle for paper and other dry litter Also called (esp in Britain)wastepaper basket

Word History and Origins

Origin of wastebasket¹

First recorded in 1855–60; waste + basket

Example Sentences

They also offer office accessories such as crocodile desk sets, wastebaskets and storage boxes.

From Washington Blade

Empty the pan into the fire, which is safer than dumping stray embers into a wastebasket or vacuuming them up, where they could set a bag of collected dust on fire.

From Washington Post

The small, easily stored, no-basket design fits most wastebaskets.

From Popular-Science

While the wastebasket fills quickly, it is easy to empty and pulls completely out of the shredder.

From Popular-Science

A safety mechanism turns off the machine if the head is removed from the wastebasket, keeping hands and fingers safe.

From Popular-Science

It will end up shriveled up, dried up, dead; rolled up in dirty gauze and tossed into a wastebasket, quickly forgotten.

From The Daily Beast

Beard nodded, and without another word, Kenney flung the work into the wastebasket.

From The Daily Beast

What did you do—go through his wastebasket and find his pay stub?

From The Daily Beast

Well, ultimately, the screenplay is the only part of a movie that you can fit into a wastebasket.

From The Daily Beast

I even remember throwing the pieces into the round wooden wastebasket in our living room.

From The Daily Beast

I finished cleaning out my desk and took a wastebasket full of papers to the back shop.

From Project Gutenberg

Bassett winnowed these carefully, brushing the chaff into his wastebasket and retaining a few kernels for later use.

From Project Gutenberg

Anything like that I always take and I tear up and put in the wastebasket.

From Project Gutenberg

Hall went through the wastebasket, the clothes hanging in the closet, every drawer in the bureau.

From Project Gutenberg

She tossed a slip into the wastebasket beside her and glanced at the next slip.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dustbin