garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

a

: food waste

b

: discarded or useless material

2

a

: trash sense 1b

b

: inaccurate or useless data

Synonyms

• chaff
• deadwood
• debris
• dreck
• drek
• dross
• dust
• effluvium
• effluvia
• junk
• litter
• offal
• offscouring
• raffle
• refuse
• riffraff
• rubbish
• scrap
• spilth
• trash
• truck
• waste

Examples of garbage in a Sentence

The park was littered with garbage.

Please take out the garbage.

Raccoons were going through the garbage.

Throw the can in the garbage.

If you ask me, what he said is a bunch of garbage.

Recent Examples on the Web

The best response is to stand together and rally around New Orleans, showing all such extremists that their vision of the world is garbage. —Dan Perry, Newsweek, 5 Jan. 2025

Clean Cult All Purpose Cleaner Lemon Verbena (Set of 3) $15 Amazon Papaya Reusable Paper Towels Bundle (Set of 6) $54 $46 Amazon Get a combination recycling bin–trash can Keep recycling and garbage separate without the pain of multiple bins with a combination recycling bin–trash can. —Bridget Reed Morawski, Architectural Digest, 3 Jan. 2025

Cleanliness applies here too—put your dirty towels in the used bin, wipe down your mat after use, throw trash in the garbage, etc. 4. —Anna Bader, Glamour, 2 Jan. 2025

However, conventional garbage eventually makes its way to the landfill and many of the items on this list contain chemicals and other hazardous materials. —Kamron Sanders, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, "poultry organs and body parts used for food, poultry refuse," borrowed from Anglo-French *garbage (implied in sergant garbagere "kitchen servant tasked with plucking and cleaning poultry"), of obscure origin

Note: On morphological, semantic, or chronological grounds unlikely to be related to Anglo-French garbeler, Middle English garbelen "to remove (impurities) from spices" (see garble entry 1) or to Middle French gaburge, grabuge "quarrel, brawl." The Anglo-French collocation sergant garbagere indicates currency of the word as early as 1318 (Household Ordinances of Edward II).

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing garbage

• a lot of garbage/nonsense
• garbage can
• garbage disposal
• garbage time
• garbage truck

Kids Definition

garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

: food waste

2

: discarded or useless material : refuse

3

: something inferior, worthless, or useless

a show that's garbage