litters

Noun

litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)

1. (uncountable) Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
   • Quen he had made me hale and ferea. 1325, Cursor Mundi (Vespasian MS), lines 13817–8
   1. (countable, obsolete) A bed, especially a pile of straw (sometimes also with blankets) used as a bed.
      • Near-synonyms: pallet, straw bed, hay bed (all broadly synonymous)
   2. (uncountable) Animal bedding together with its dung.
      • Silkworms... must be well cleansed from the litter.1835, Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures, page 232
2. (countable) A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
   • ... In a lytter made tho full royall...1410s, John Lydgate, Troy Book, Canto II
   1. (countable) Synonym of stretcher, such a vehicle used for transporting the sick and injured, inclusive of designs carried in the hand.
      • He ordeyned lyttyers for the wounded knyghtes.c. 1480, Thomas Malory, chapter XIX, in Morte d'Arthur
   2. (broadly, countable) Any of the other similar conveyances, such as sedan chairs, hammock litters, and the like.
      • When they went out, they sat in litters, which were curtained.1922, Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization, page 219

See all 20 meanings of litter