(sports) The period at the end of a timed sporting event that has become a blowout when the outcome of the game has already been decided, and the coaches of one or both teams will often decide to replace their best players with substitutes.
1991, Kathleen Warnock, To the Top, page 16:
I play for two minutes of garbage time at the end of a blowout? Is that all the time I'm going to see anymore?
2012, Don Winslow, The Gentlemen's Hour: A Novel, page 92:
It was garbage time, really, but it was a chance to get Corey some playing time, and Pedersen was out of pitchers anyway.
2014, Jim Farrell, Kiss Me, Kate and Other Stories, page 199:
I usually just got in during garbage time, which there was a lot of that year as we rolled to another state championship.