garbage
nounverbadjectivecommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈɡɑː.bɪd͡ʒ//
- United States//ˈɡɑɹ.bɪd͡ʒ//
Food waste material of any kind.
noun
- 1
Food waste material of any kind.
- 2
archaicFoul, rotten or unripe vegetable matter.
- 3
Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.
- 4
Specifically, waste material destined not to be reclaimed through recycling, composting, etc.
Compost goes in the brown bin and is picked up Monday, recycling goes in blue bags and is picked up Wednesday, and garbage goes in black bags and is picked up Thursday.
Oh, don't put the empty milk jug in that bin—that one's for garbage.
- 5
A place or receptacle for waste material.
He threw the newspaper into the garbage.
- 6
Nonsense; gibberish.
This machine translation is garbage.
- 7
Something or someone worthless.
The dissenting Christian Advocate asked (5 January 1835) how a cabinet composed of the very garbage of Toryism could be expected to share the spirit of Peel’s manifesto.
- 8
obsoleteThe bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.
- 9
slangAn easy shot.
Yet, even without the three second rule, where your big man could camp underneath and take those delightful “garbage” shots, there was little or no pivot offense, no cutting off the bucket.
[…] the aging pro, in a much-heralded "boys against the girls" tennis match, annihilated Margaret Court with an array of "garbage shots and cotton balls."
- 10
Allocated memory which is no longer in use but has not yet been deallocated.
- 11
Data that are misinterpreted as another kind of data.
Etymology
From late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”). Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ġearwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear
verb
- 1
obsoleteto eviscerate
I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.
adjective
- 1
informalbad, crap, shitty
Forget about that garbage advice to “act natural”.
half that shit you morons listen to with pride is totally garbage
If you have been with a man for more than five years and both of you have not planned to marry one another, the relationship is completely garbage, and you can do but nothing with it more than having a sexual life with one another.
The last time I had access to a therapist was 20 years ago, and that was a pretty garbage experience.
Forms
- past tense
- garbaged
- past participle
- garbaged
- present participle
- garbaging
- third person singular
- garbages