litter
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From French litière, from lit (“bed”), from Latin lectus; confer Ancient Greek λέκτρον (lektron). Had the sense ‘bed’ in very early English, but then came to mean ‘portable couch’, ‘bedding’, ‘strewn rushes (for animals)’, ...
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)
- (countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
- Shakespeare
- There is a litter ready; lay him in 't.
- Shakespeare
- (countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
- D. Estrange
- A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter.
- D. Estrange
- (uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.
- (uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
- Jonathan Swift
- Strephon […] / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.
- Jonathan Swift
- (uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
- (uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
- A covering of straw for plants.
- Evelyn
- Take off the litter from your kernel beds.
- Evelyn
Synonyms[edit]
- (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet
- (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junk
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
platform designed to carry a person or a load
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animals born in one birth
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bedding for animals
discarded items
material for litter tray
layer of dead leaves and other organic matter
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb[edit]
litter (third-person singular simple present litters, present participle littering, simple past and past participle littered)
- (intransitive) To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
- By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering.
- (transitive) To strew with scattered articles.
- Jonathan Swift
- the room with volumes littered round
- Jonathan Swift
- (transitive) To give birth to, used of animals.
- Sir Thomas Browne
- We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.
- Shakespeare
- The son that she did litter here, / A freckled whelp hagborn.
- Sir Thomas Browne
- (intransitive) To produce a litter of young.
- Macaulay
- A desert […] where the she-wolf still littered.
- Macaulay
- (transitive) To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
- Bishop Hacke
- Tell them how they litter their jades.
- Dryden
- For his ease, well littered was the floor.
- Bishop Hacke
- (intransitive) To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
- Habington
- The inn where he and his horse littered.
- Habington
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it
give birth
Anagrams[edit]
Jèrriais[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French luitier, loitier, luiter (compare French lutter), from Latin luctor, luctārī (“struggle, wrestle, fight”).
Verb[edit]
litter
- to wrestle
Derived terms[edit]
- litteux (“wrestler”)
