Noun
We decided to pick up the litter in the park.
Her desk was covered with a litter of legal documents. Verb
Paper and popcorn littered the streets after the parade.
a desk littered with old letters and bills
It is illegal to litter.
He had to pay a fine for littering. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Green described wild pigs as opportunistic eaters that breed early, produce big litters and face no natural predators in Alabama, leaving them free to trash everything from pine seedlings to row crops.—Lawrence Specker | Lspecker@al.com, al, 13 Sep. 2023 Department crews typically go out and clean up litter prior to mowing season, but other programs help out too:
The Adopt-a-Highway program handles specific two-mile sections of the roadway along a state, federal or interstate route.—Erin Couch, The Enquirer, 10 Sep. 2023 Students should focus their video on the Keep Arkansas Beautiful mission of inspiring individuals to improve their communities by educating, preventing litter, promoting recycling and keeping Arkansas beautiful.—Arkansas Online, 10 Sep. 2023 Large herbivores regulate nature’s fire systems by eating plant matter that fuels wildfires and turning over soil and vegetation litter as a result of their rummaging behavior.—Curtis Abraham, Scientific American, 9 Sep. 2023 Over the years, the Pumpkin Spice Latte has taken on a life of its own, becoming a signal for fall both beloved and mocked, and ushering in an era of pumpkin spice products, from cat litter to yogurt to beer.—Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN, 23 Aug. 2023 Participants help clean up litter from the San Dieguito Watershed and keep it from going in the ocean.—Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Aug. 2023 Tick prevention is particularly important when spending time in tick-prone areas, such as tall grasses, shrubs, and leaf litter, said Pritt.—Julia Ries, Health, 9 Aug. 2023 In the late nineteen-nineties, a neuroscientist named Mark Blumberg stood in a lab at the University of Iowa watching a litter of sleeping rats.—Amanda Gefter, The New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2023
Verb
The road to a 100 mph fastball is littered with ruptured ulnar collateral ligaments.—Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 31 Aug. 2023 Roads were littered with limbs and branches, and some were caked in mud.—WSJ, 31 Aug. 2023 Law enforcement should enforce statutes against littering, wage theft, extortion and other behaviors that actually harm communities.—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2023 For months, Etsy has become littered with a new genre of T-shirt: the Donald Trump mug shot.—Amanda Hoover, WIRED, 25 Aug. 2023 In addition to the 27 wineries in town, there are tasting rooms and vineyards littered throughout the Santa Ynez Valley.—Maya Kachroo-Levine, Travel + Leisure, 22 Aug. 2023 The history of the Cold War is littered with near misses.—Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023 But interstellar space is littered with opaque clouds of cosmic dust, tiny grains of rocky or sooty material that block our view of what lies beyond.—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 4 Aug. 2023 Down the hall from the head coach’s office overlooking Maverik Stadium, Utah State defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen glances down at a desk littered with play sheets, depth charts and assorted notes.—Kevin Reynolds, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Aug. 2023 See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'litter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun and Verb
Middle English, from Anglo-French litere, from lit bed, from Latin lectus — more at lie
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