garbage

Garbage.

English

Alternative forms

• garbidge

Etymology

Middle English "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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

garbage (uncountable)

1. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
2. Nonsense; gibberish.
3. (often attributively) Something or someone worthless.
   • 2009, David R. Portney, 129 More Seminar Speaking Success Tips, ISBN 9780967851488, p. 8:

     Forget about that garbage advice to “act natural”.

4. (computing) Data that cannot or will not be accessed by a program, but are still taking up space.
5. (computing) Data that make no sense to the program trying to use them.

Synonyms

• junk, refuse, rubbish, trash, waste
• See also Wikisaurus: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 truck garbo garbologist

Translations

waste material

• Albanian: mbeturinave
• Arabic: زُبَالَة f (rubāla), نُفَايَة f (nufāya), قمامة f (qumāma), مخلفات pl (muxallafāt)
• Armenian: աղբ (ałb)
• Azeri: zibil, tullantı, çöp
• Belarusian: смецце n (smjéccje)
• Breton: stronk m
• Bulgarian: боклук (bg) m (bokluk), отпадък (bg) m (otpadǎk), смет (bg) (smet)
• Chamicuro: s̈hutechi
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: odpad (cs) m, odpadky pl
• Danish: affald (da) n
• Dutch: huisvuil n, vuilnis (nl) f, n, vuil (nl) n
• Esperanto: rubo
• Estonian: jäätmed, rämps
• Finnish: roskat (fi) pl, jätteet, jäte (fi)
• French: ordures (fr) pl, déchet (fr) m
• Georgian: ნარჩენები (narč’enebi), ნაგავი (nagavi)
• German: Abfall (de) m, Müll (de) m
• Greek: απορρίματα n pl (aporrímata), σκουπίδια (el) n pl (skoupídia)
• Hebrew: זבל (he) m (zével), אשפה (he) f
• Hindi: कचरा m (kacrā)
• Hungarian: szemét (hu), hulladék (hu)
• Icelandic: rusl (is) n
• Ido: eskombro (io)
• Italian: immondizia (it) f, spazzatura (it) f, rifiuti (it)
• Japanese: ごみ (ja) (gomi), 廃物 (ja) (はいぶつ, haibutsu), がらくた (garakuta)
• Kazakh: ескі-құсқы (yeski-qusqı), қоқым-соқым (qoqım-soqım)
• Khmer: សំរាម (km) (sɑmraam)

• Korean: 쓰레기 (ko) (sseuregi), 오물 (ko) (omul) (汚物 (ko))
• Latin: purgamentum n, quisquiliae (la) f pl
• Latvian: atkritumi m pl
• Lithuanian: šiukšlių
• Macedonian: ѓубре n (ǵúbre)
• Manx: fooillagh
• Marathi: कचरा (kacrā)
• Mongolian: хог (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
• Portuguese: lixo (pt) m
• Romagnolo: rùsco m
• Romanian: gunoi (ro)
• Russian: мусор (ru) m (músor), отбросы (ru) m pl (otbrósy), хлам (ru) m (xlam), сор (ru) m (sor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: отпад m, смеће n

  Roman: otpad m, smeće n

• Slovak: odpad m, odpadky pl
• Slovene: odpadek m, smet
• Spanish: basura (es) f
• Tatar: чүп-чәр (çüp-çär)
• Telugu: చెత్త (te) (chetta)
• Thai: กาก (th) (gàak), ขยะ (th) (kà-yà)
• Turkish: çöp (tr), süprüntü (tr)
• Turkmen: çöp
• Ukrainian: сміття n (smittjá)
• Vietnamese: rác (vi)
• West Frisian: ôffal n

Verb

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

1. (transitive, 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

• gut
• disembowel
• eviscerate

Usage notes

This word is chiefly US.

See also

• Wikipedia article on garbage