garbage

English

Alternative forms

• garbidge (obsolete or eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?] (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”) from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ġearwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑɹbɪd͡ʒ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑːbɪd͡ʒ/
• (US, humorous, imitating the French pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɑ(ɹ)ˈbɑːʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gar‧bage

Noun

garbage (uncountable) (chiefly US, Canada)

1. (obsolete) The bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.
2. Food waste material of any kind.

   Garbage is collected on Tuesdays; rubbish on Fridays

3. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.

   The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.

4. A place or receptacle for waste material.

   He threw the newspaper into the garbage.

5. Nonsense; gibberish.
6. (often attributively) Something or someone worthless.
   • 2009, David R. Portney, 129 More Seminar Speaking Success Tips‎^[1], →ISBN, page 8:

     Forget about that garbage advice to “act natural”.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}} to add them to the appropriate sense(s).

• junk, refuse, rubbish, trash, waste
• See also Thesaurus:trash

Antonyms

• artifact, asset, catch, find, prize, recyclable, resource, treasure, valuable

Derived terms

Terms derived from garbage

• garbage bag
• garbage bin
• garbage can
• garbage collect
• garbage collector
• garbage collection

• garbage disposal
• garbage dump
• garbage in, garbage out
• garbage man
• garbage mitt
• garbage scow

• garbage time
• garbage truck
• garbo
• garbologist

Translations

waste material

• Albanian: mbeturinë (sq) f
• Arabic: زُبَالَة‎‎ f (zubāla), نُفَايَة‎‎ f (nufāya), قُمَامَة‎‎ f (qumāma), مُخَلَّفَات‎‎ pl (muḵallafāt)
• Armenian: աղբ (hy) (ałb)
• Assamese: জাৱৰ (zawôr/zabôr), আৱৰ্জনা (awôrzôna/abôrzôna)
• Azerbaijani: zibil (az), tullantı, çöp (az)
• Belarusian: сме́цце n (smjéccje)
• Bengali: আবর্জনা (abôrjôna), ছার (char)
• Breton: stronk m
• Bulgarian: боклу́к (bg) m (boklúk), отпа́дък (bg) m (otpádǎk), смет (bg) m (smet)
• Burmese: အမှိုက် (my) (a.hmuik), အမှိုကျ (a.hmui-kya.)
• Chamicuro: s̈hutechi
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 垃圾 (laap⁶ saap³)

  Mandarin: 垃圾 (zh) (lājī, lèsè), 廢物 (zh), 废物 (zh) (fèiwù), 破爛 (zh), 破烂 (zh) (pòlàn, pòlànr)

  Min Nan: 糞埽 (zh-min-nan), 粪埽 (pùn-sò)

• Czech: odpad (cs) m, odpadky pl
• Danish: affald (da) n
• Dutch: huisvuil (nl) n, vuilnis (nl) f, n, vuil (nl) n, afval (nl) n (Belgium)
• Esperanto: rubo
• Estonian: jäätmed, rämps
• Finnish: roskat (fi) pl, jätteet, jäte (fi)
• French: ordures (fr) pl, déchet (fr) m
• Galician: lixo m, porcallada (gl) f, baldroada (gl) f, lorda (gl) f, ciscallo (gl) m, zudre (gl) m, fória (gl) f, foira (gl) f
• Georgian: ნარჩენები (narčenebi), ნაგავი (nagavi)
• German: Abfall (de) m, Müll (de) m

  Alemannic German: Güsel m

• Greek: απορρίματα n pl (aporrímata), σκουπίδια (el) n pl (skoupídia)
• Greenlandic: igitat
• Hebrew: זֶבֶל‎‎ (he) m (zével), אַשְׁפָּה‎‎ (he) f (ashpa)
• Hindi: कचरा (hi) m (kacrā), मलबा (hi) (malbā)
• Hungarian: szemét (hu), hulladék (hu)
• Icelandic: rusl (is) n
• Ido: eskombro (io)
• Indonesian: sampah (id)
• Irish: bruscar (ga) m, garr m
• Italian: immondizia (it) f, spazzatura (it) f, rifiuti (it) pl
• Japanese: ごみ (ja) (gomi), 廃物 (ja) (はいぶつ, haibutsu), がらくた (ja) (garakuta), 廃品 (ja) (はいひん, haihin)
• Kazakh: ескі-құсқы (eski-qusqı), қоқым-соқым (qoqım-soqım)
• Khmer: សំរាម (km) (sɑmraam), ឡាប់សង (lapsɑɑng)
• Korean: 쓰레기 (ko) (sseuregi), 오물 (ko) (omul) (汚物 (ko))
• Lao: ຂຍະ (kha nya), ຄຸມຝອຽ (khum fǭi), ມູນຝອຽ (mūn fǭi), ສັງການ (sang kān)

• Latin: purgamentum n, quisquiliae (la) f pl
• Latvian: atkritumi m pl
• Lithuanian: šiukšlių
• Macedonian: ѓубре n (ǵubre), смет m (smet)
• Malay: sampah
• Manx: fooillagh
• Marathi: कचरा (kacrā)
• Mongolian: хог (mn) (hog)
• Nigerian Pidgin: doti-doti
• Norwegian: avfall (no) n, søppel (no) n, boss n
• Old English: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: آشخال‎‎ (fa) (âšxâl), آشغال‎‎ (fa) (âšğâl)
• Polish: śmieci pl, odpady m pl
• Portuguese: lixo (pt) m
• Romagnol: rùsco m
• Romanian: gunoi (ro) n
• Russian: му́сор (ru) m (músor), отбро́сы (ru) m pl (otbrósy), хлам (ru) m (xlam), сор (ru) m (sor)
• Scottish Gaelic: sgudal m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: otpad (sh) m, smeće (sh) n

  Roman: отпад m, смеће n

• Slovak: odpad m, odpadky pl
• Slovene: odpadek m, smet
• Spanish: basura (es) f, desperdicios (es) m pl
• Tajik: ахлот (tg) (axlot), хокрӯба (xokrüba)
• Tatar: чүп-чәр (çüp-çär)
• Telugu: చెత్త (te) (cetta)
• Thai: กาก (th) (gàak), ขยะ (th) (kà-yà)
• Tibetan: གད་སྙིགས (gad snyigs)
• Turkish: çöp (tr), süprüntü (tr)
• Turkmen: çöp, zibil (tk)
• Ukrainian: сміття́ n (smittjá)
• Urdu: ملبه‎‎ (malba)
• Uyghur: ئەخلەت‎‎ (exlet)
• Uzbek: eski-tuski (uz), axlat (uz), chiqindi (uz)
• Vietnamese: rác (vi)
• Welsh: ysbwriel m, sbwriel (cy) m, sothach m
• West Frisian: ôffal n
• Westrobothnian: rat n, gval m
• Yiddish: מיסט‎‎ n (mist), אָפּפֿאַל‎‎ m (opfal)

Verb

garbage (third-person singular simple present garbages, present participle garbaging, simple past and past participle garbaged)

1. (transitive, chiefly US, Canada, obsolete) to eviscerate
   • 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):

     I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.

   Synonyms: disembowel, eviscerate, gut

See also

• Wikipedia article on garbage