garbage
Syllables: gar·bageUK/ˈɡɑː.bɪd͡ʒ//ˈɡɑɹ.bɪd͡ʒ/
garbage noun: food waste material of any kind.
Noun
garbage (uncountable)
- Food waste material of any kind.
- Foul, rotten or unripe vegetable matter.
- Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
- The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.
- Specifically, waste material destined not to be reclaimed through recycling, composting, etc.
- Compost goes in the brown bin and is picked up Monday, recycling goes in blue bags and is picked up Wednesday, and garbage goes in black bags and is picked up Thursday.
- Oh, don't put the empty milk jug in that bin—that one's for garbage.
- Antonyms:
- recyclable
- A place or receptacle for waste material.
- He threw the newspaper into the garbage.
- Nonsense; gibberish.
- This machine translation is garbage.
- Something or someone worthless.
- The dissenting Christian Advocate asked (5 January 1835) how a cabinet composed of the very garbage of Toryism could be expected to share the spirit of Peel’s manifesto.1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 103
- Synonyms:
- cheapie, duff, dirtbag, crapola, gash, hunk of junk, load of bull, load of crap, load of shit, piece of crap
- The bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.
- An easy shot.
- Yet, even without the three second rule, where your big man could camp underneath and take those delightful “garbage” shots, there was little or no pivot offense, no cutting off the bucket.1962, Coach & Athlete, page 18
- […] the aging pro, in a much-heralded "boys against the girls" tennis match, annihilated Margaret Court with an array of "garbage shots and cotton balls."1981, Update 1981: The Great Contemporary Issues, New York Times Company, page 78
- Allocated memory which is no longer in use but has not yet been deallocated.
- Data that are misinterpreted as another kind of data.
Verb
garbage (third-person singular simple present garbages, present participle garbaging, simple past and past participle garbaged)
- to eviscerate
- I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.1674, John Josselyn, Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63 (quoted in William Butts Mershon, The Passenger Pigeon, 1907, The Outing Publishing Company)
- Synonyms:
- disembowel, eviscerate, gut
Adjective
garbage (not comparable)
garbage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
garbage in Hindi
- waste material
- कचरा kacrā, कूड़ा kūṛā
garbage in Tamil
- குப்பை, குப்பை கூளம், கழிவுப் பொருள்
garbage in Marathi
- waste material
- कचरा kacrā
garbage in Urdu
- waste material
- مَلْبا malbā, کَچْرَہ kacra, حَشْو haśv, کُوڑا kūṛā, آلائِش ālāiś, فُضْلَہ fuzla
More languagesFewer languages
- garbage in Bengali
- আবর্জনা aborjona, ছার char
- garbage in Telugu
- చెత్త cetta
- garbage in Malayalam
- മാലിന്യം mālinyaṁ, ചവറ് cavaṟŭ
- garbage in Kannada
- ಕಸ kasa
- garbage in Punjabi
- ਕਚਰਾ kacrā
- garbage in Gujarati
- કચરો
- garbage in Odia
- ଆବର୍ଜନା
- garbage in Assamese
- জাৱৰ zawor, আৱৰ্জনা aworzona
- garbage in Nepali
- फोहोर, गार्बेजिङ
- garbage in Pashto
- پوتل pawṭal, ګيخه gixa, ګيچه giča, کثافات kasāfāt
- garbage in Arabic
- زُبَالَة zubāla, نُفَايَات nufāyāt, قُمَامَة qumāma, مُخَلَّفَات muḵallafāt
- garbage in Malay
- sampah
- garbage in Indonesian
- sampah
- garbage in Thai
- กาก gàak, ขยะ kà-yà, หยากเยื่อ yàak-yʉ̂ʉa
- garbage in Vietnamese
- rác
- garbage in Myanmar
- အမှိုက် a.hmuik, ပေါက်ကရ paukka.ra., အမှိုက်သရိုက် a.hmuiksa.ruik, အညစ်အကြေး a.nyaca.kre:
Examples of garbage in a sentence
- He knew that it was trash day, when the garbage collectors made all the noise.
- The child will devoid the garbage after he devours his sandwich.
- The alley is full of stray cats rummaging through the garbage.
Synonyms of garbage
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- crap
- debris
- dreck
- drek
- gash
- litter
- piece of crap
- piece of garbage
- piece of shit
- pile of crap
- pile of shit
- piece of trash
- service item
- shit
- stuff
- bin
- double Dutch
- flim-flam
- mumbo jumbo
- absurdity
- all my eye
- all my eye and Betty Martin
- bafflegab
- balderdash
- balls
- baloney
- Bandini
- baragouin
- batcrap
- batshit
Antonyms
Forms of garbage
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative pronunciation-spelling (obsolete) | garbidge |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | garbages |
| present participle | garbaging |
| past participle | garbaged |
| past | garbaged |
Origin of garbage
From late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”). Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ġearwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear
Words formed from garbage
- carbage
- garbage bag
- garbage bandit
- garbage bin
- garbage can
- garbage chute
- garbage collect
- garbage collected
- garbage collection
- garbage collector
- garbage-collector
- garbage day
- garbage disposal
- garbage disposal unit
- garbage dump
- garbage fire
- garbage fly
- garbage gleaning
- Garbage Grove
- garbage heap of history
- garbage in, garbage out
- garbage lady
- garbageless
- garbagelike
- garbageman
- garbage man
- garbage mitt
- garbageness
- garbage pail
- garbage panda
- garbage patch
- garbageperson
- garbage picking
- garbage plate
- garbager
- garbagescape
- garbage scow
- garbage time
- garbage truck
- garbageware
- garbage woman
- garbagewoman
- garbagey
- garbo
- garbologist
- garbology
- gubbish
- piece of garbage
- snarge
- treat like garbage
Phrases with garbage
- garbage men
- garbage bags
- garbage bins
- garbage cans
- garbage days
- garbage dumps
- garbage fires
- garbage flies
- garbage mitts
- garbage pails
- garbage scows
- Garbage State
19 more phrasesFewer phrases
- garbage women
- garbage chutes
- Garbage Island
- garbage ladies
- garbage pandas
- garbage plates
- garbage trucks
- garbage bandits
- garbage patches
- garbage disposals
- pieces of garbage
- garbage collectors
- garbage collections
- treats like garbage
- treated like garbage
- treating like garbage
- garbage disposal units
- garbage heaps of history
- Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Questions about garbage
- What does garbage mean?
- Garbage means food waste material of any kind.
- What is garbage in Hindi?
- Garbage in Hindi is कचरा (kacrā), कूड़ा (kūṛā). See Garbage meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is garbage?
- Garbage can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce garbage?
- Garbage is pronounced /ˈɡɑː.bɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
Words near garbage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: garbage (page history and authors); garbage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಕಸ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕਚਰਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); garbage (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); garbage (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); garbage (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-garbage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “garbage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/garbage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.