throwaway

throwaway adjective: disposable; intended for a single use prior to being discarded. Also the ellipsis of throwaway panel.

Adjective

throwaway (not comparable)

Disposable; intended for a single use prior to being discarded.
- Water was provided in throwaway plastic bottles, but the more ecologically minded of us refilled our initial bottles from the fountain.
- More people means that more synthetic compounds and dangerous throwaway plastics are manufactured, many of which add to the growing toxification of the Earth.2021 January 13, Phoebe Weston, “Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruption”, in The Guardian
Synonyms:

single-use, disposable
Extemporaneous; off the cuff.
- The host made a throwaway remark about the president that was later repeated on the television news.
Given in a casual manner, either deliberately or unconsciously, with apparent disregard for effect.
- As the film opens, a martial-drum-dominated version of the "Star Wars" theme and the inevitable bottom-to-top print crawl inform us that the Clone Wars, a conflict that originated as a throwaway line in the original 1977 film......
- I was intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake: "You flew the wing-five over Leningrad, didn't you?" It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF, where a casual reference can imply a lot....

throwaway (plural throwaways)

Any printed material that need not be kept after being read; especially, a flyer or brochure.
- Some [of the essays] appeared originally in writer's^([sic]) forums and bookstore throwaways, others in more academic contexts […]2016, Dr Eric Murphy Selinger, Dr William A Gleason, Romance Fiction and American Culture
(Internet) A burner account.

throwaway is also the ellipsis of throwaway panel.

He prefers his antique nondisposable camera to any plastic throwaway.
The throwaway panel cannot contain any information vital to the main narrative of the strip.
To test this page, skip the throwaway panel when reading; nothing is lost.

plural	throwaways

Deverbal from throw away.

What does throwaway mean?: Throwaway means disposable; intended for a single use prior to being discarded.
What part of speech is throwaway?: Throwaway can be an adjective or a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: throwaway (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “throwaway.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throwaway. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.