garbage collection

Noun

garbage collection (usually uncountable, plural garbage collections)

1. (Canada, US, usually) A service, generally run by local government, for transporting household garbage to the appropriate facility.

   Synonyms:

   rubbish collection

2. (usually) An automatic mechanism that frees up resources (such as allocated memory) that are no longer in use.
   • Java uses a technique known as garbage collection to remove objects that are no longer needed. The garbage collector is Java's grim reaper.[2002, Patrick Niemeyer, Jonathan Knudsen, Learning Java, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 135
   • Generational garbage collection has proved to be a highly effective organisation, offering significant performance improvements for a wide range of applications.2016, Richard Jones, Antony Hosking, Eliot Moss, The Garbage Collection Handbook, CRC Press, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   GC