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

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

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

Singer is perhaps the only philosopher who could expect to find a stalker rooting through his garbage for some sign of hypocrisy—chicken bones, unopened pleas from UNICEF, a Tiffany Blue Box. —Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025

In a startling revelation, the crew members aboard this intergalactic garbage scow turn out to be the descendants of American astronauts launched 200 years earlier during humanity's pre-warp, post-World War III days. —Jeff Spry, Space.com, 20 Aug. 2025

One challenge for a robot in housekeeping was to pick up all the garbage in a mock hotel room and take out the trash. —Eunice Yoon, CNBC, 18 Aug. 2025

There’s one this season where if one person says no, the whole episode has to be thrown in the garbage, unfortunately. —Antonia Blyth, Deadline, 18 Aug. 2025

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