wastebasket

American  

[wayst-bas-kit, -bah-skit] / ˈweɪstˌbæs kɪt, -ˌbɑ skɪt /

noun

• wastebaskets
  plural

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

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wastebasket British  

/ ˈweɪstˌbɑːskɪt /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• wastebaskets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of wastebasket

First recorded in 1855–60; waste + basket

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wastebasket wastebaskets

Shareholders get so little in settlement that most never collect their damages; their claim forms end up in the wastebasket.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

Do it once, but make sure to sit beside a wastebasket.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2025

These commitments are important, as they give Kennedy something to wad up and christen his wastebasket with when he steps into his new office.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2025

This trend should be in the same wastebasket as mullets, microwave dinners and inflated lips.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2024

It was like when the teacher was going to throw the pumpkin pie in the wastebasket.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

As a housemate, he was catastrophic—overturning wastebaskets, ransacking drawers and drenching manuscripts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

When that happens, residents are forced to defecate in wastebaskets in their rooms and then, he said, take “the walk of shame” to deposit their feces in hallway trash rooms.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2023

She herself had emptied the wastebaskets as a little girl.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 5, 2022

He was socially awkward, muttered to himself, belched noisily in public and urinated in office wastebaskets.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2022

I emptied the wastebaskets and feather-dusted the desks, which were piled with scattered papers.

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez

Related Words

• dustbin