garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

a

: food waste

b

: discarded or useless material

2

a

: trash sense 1b

b

: inaccurate or useless data

Synonyms of garbage

• trash
• debris
• rubbish
• junk
• dust
• litter
• sewage
• truck

Examples of garbage in a Sentence

The park was littered with garbage.

Please take out the garbage.

Raccoons were going through the garbage.

Throw the can in the garbage.

If you ask me, what he said is a bunch of garbage.

Recent Examples on the Web

Just mountains of garbage to wade through only to never find anything decent to watch. — Josef Adalian, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2026

Wildlife officials across the West have launched campaigns to encourage residents to bear-proof their garbage containers, clean their outdoor barbecue grills and remove bird feeders and pet food from outdoor areas when bears are active. — Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 20 Aug. 2026

Finding places to play Eight miles from central Nairobi, the air over the Dandora landfill is gauzy with the acrid, chemical smoke of burning garbage. — Ryan Lenora Brown, Christian Science Monitor, 20 Aug. 2026

GreenWaste also offered a 20% discount to seniors and free side-yard service, meaning seniors and people with disabilities would not have to move their bins to the curb on garbage day. — Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 20 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, "poultry organs and body parts used for food, poultry refuse," borrowed from Anglo-French *garbage (implied in sergant garbagere "kitchen servant tasked with plucking and cleaning poultry"), of obscure origin

Note: On morphological, semantic, or chronological grounds unlikely to be related to Anglo-French garbeler, Middle English garbelen "to remove (impurities) from spices" (see garble entry 1) or to Middle French gaburge, grabuge "quarrel, brawl." The Anglo-French collocation sergant garbagere indicates currency of the word as early as 1318 (Household Ordinances of Edward II).

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing garbage

• a lot of garbage/nonsense
• garbage can
• garbage disposal
• garbage time
• garbage truck

Kids Definition

garbage

noun

gar·​bage ˈgär-bij 

1

: food waste

2

: discarded or useless material : refuse

3

: something inferior, worthless, or useless

a show that's garbage