wastebasket
[weyst-bas-kit, -bah-skit]
- a standing basket for wastepaper, small items of trash, etc.
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Origin of wastebasket
Also called wastepaper basket.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for wastebasket
Contemporary Examples
It will end up shriveled up, dried up, dead; rolled up in dirty gauze and tossed into a wastebasket, quickly forgotten.
Beard nodded, and without another word, Kenney flung the work into the wastebasket.
Doug Kenney: The Odd Comic Genius Behind ‘Animal House’ and National LampoonRobert Sam Anson
March 1, 2014
What did you do—go through his wastebasket and find his pay stub?
Well, ultimately, the screenplay is the only part of a movie that you can fit into a wastebasket.
Not because he tried to use company money to purchase, among other items, a $1,400 wastebasket, but because he got caught.
Historical Examples
"Oh, here's your handkerchief," she said quietly, taking it from the bottom of her wastebasket.
Good IndianB. M. Bower
These might readily have been consigned to the depths of the wastebasket unopened, unread.
The Film of FearArnold Fredericks
Daniel knocked the ashes from his pipe into the wastebasket.
Cap'n Dan's DaughterJoseph C. Lincoln
I rummaged in the wastebasket and uncrumpled the morning's facsimile newspaper.
Measure for a LonerJames Judson Harmon
Years ago I must have laughed at it, when I threw my only copy into the wastebasket.
The Promised LandMary Antin
wastebasket
- an open receptacle for paper and other dry litterAlso called (esp in Britain): wastepaper basket
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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