garbage

American  

[gahr-bij] / ˈgɑr bɪdʒ /

noun

1. discarded animal and vegetable matter, as from a kitchen; refuse.

2. any matter that is no longer wanted or needed; trash.

3. a bin or other receptacle for discarded matter, especially kitchen waste; garbage can.

   Hey, who threw my leftover pizza in the garbage?

   Synonyms:

   taradiddle, malarkey, hogwash, claptrap, bunkum, nonsense, waste, trash, rubbish, junk, refuse, litter

4. anything that is contemptibly worthless, inferior, or vile.

   There's nothing but garbage on TV tonight.

5. worthless talk; lies; foolishness.

6. Informal. any unnecessary item added to something else, as for appearance only; garnish.

   I'll have an Old Fashioned, but without the garbage.

7. useless artificial satellites or parts of rockets floating in space, as satellites that are no longer transmitting information or rocket boosters jettisoned in flight.

8. Computers. meaningless or unwanted data.

   That program was not properly debugged and produced nothing but garbage.

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garbage British  

/ ˈɡɑːbɪdʒ /

noun

1. worthless, useless, or unwanted matter

2. Also called: rubbish.  discarded or waste matter; refuse

3. computing invalid data

4. informal nonsense

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Etymology

Origin of garbage

First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English garbage, gabage “discarded parts of butchered fowls; entrails of fowls used for human food”; compare with Middle English garbelage “removal of refuse from spices,” Middle English garbelure “refuse found in spices,” and Old French garbage (also jarbage ) “tax on sheaves of grain,” but the shift of sense here is unclear; further origin uncertain; garble, -age

Example Sentences

Riding on the back of a garbage collector's truck for her social media accounts, she has promised a city that is clean seven days a week.

From Barron's

Images of uncollected garbage rotting on Havana’s streets have been broadcast across the globe.

From Los Angeles Times

“I’ve been working with computers for over 50 years, and have seen fads come and go. One truism is ‘garbage in, garbage out.’

From The Wall Street Journal

When Watters responded, “This is garbage,” Graham was forced to eat crow.

From Salon

After she goes, I turn on some kids’ songs about garbage trucks and excavators to block out the music from down the hall.

From Literature