discard implies the letting go or throwing away of something that has become useless or superfluous though often not intrinsically valueless.
discard old clothes
cast, especially when used with off, away, or out, implies a forceful rejection or repudiation.
cast off her friends
shed and slough imply a throwing off of something both useless and encumbering and often suggest a consequent renewal of vitality or luster.
shed a bad habit
finally sloughed off the depression
scrap and junk imply throwing away or breaking up as worthless in existent form.
scrap all the old ways
would junk our educational system
Examples of junk in a Sentence
Noun (1)
couldn't believe that such junk was chosen to be read for the book club
my car is junk—it spends more time in the shop than on the road junk on the side of the road waiting for the trash collectionVerb
We decided to junk our old computer and buy a new one.
we'll have to junk this old car
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Noun
An oil painting that was discovered on a junk site in Capri over 60 years ago may have turned out to be an original Picasso, and two pieces were stolen from the artist’s granddaughter back in February 2007, among other various incidents.—Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2025 Argentina’s sovereign bonds are uniformly rated as junk—none of the rating agencies assign investment-grade status to them.—Mark Weisbrot, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025
Verb
So, to prevent another experiment like the convertibility system that eventually exploded, Argentina should junk the peso and the BCRA.—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2025 Equity grading, which curtails teacher discretion, should be junked.—Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for junk
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