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

• chaff
• deadwood
• debris
• dreck
• drek
• dross
• dust
• effluvium
• effluvia
• junk
• litter
• offal
• offscouring
• raffle
• refuse
• riffraff
• rubbish
• scrap
• spilth
• trash
• truck
• waste

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

Items seized included a garbage bag that contained a women’s purse, wallet, identification cards for Worser, various cards and a garbage bag that contained a mixture of male and female clothing that were saturated in a red blood-like substance, the warrant affidavit said. —Kellie Love, Hartford Courant, 30 Apr. 2025

Investigators found a baseball bat, a handsaw, blood, a garbage bag with clothing and another with Wormser’s purse, wallet, identification cards and other cards in the apartment, WVIT reported, citing the warrant. —Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 28 Apr. 2025

The fact that John Ford — who any cinephile would consider one of the most important directors of all time — his final movie just looks like garbage is a travesty. —J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 24 Apr. 2025

Finally, there was an alternative to a news feed overwhelmed with garbage, gossip, and influencer videos that people don’t necessarily ask for but can’t resist clicking on and then feeling bad about. —Steven Levy, Wired News, 18 Apr. 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