rubbish

noun

1. 1

   Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.

   The rubbish is collected every Thursday in Gloucester, but on Wednesdays in Cheltenham.

   What traſh is Rome? / What Rubbiſh and what Offall? when it ſerues / For the baſe matter, to illuminate / So vile a thing as Cæsar.

   [T]he Employments of the common Ants or Workers […] are partly the Management of the Young, and the Building their little Hills of Straw, Rubbiſh, and Particles of Earth, mixed with Blades of Graſs, into little Mounds or Ramparts, on which to expoſe the Eggs and Nymphs to the Sun-beams; their other great Employment is, in collecting Proviſions.

   Simply because as Taciturn pretells, our wrongstoryshortener, he dumptied the wholeborrow of rubbages on to soil here.

2. 2

   An item, or items, of low quality.

   Much of what they sell is utter rubbish.

   [W]e may add that publications of this nature always contain much rubbiſh to make up the bulk; for to produce a neat collection of true wit, requires talents and judgment that would ſcarcely ſtoop to the taſk.

   "And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" / "No, sah—nuffn' else."

3. 3

   Nonsense.

   Everything the teacher said during that lesson was rubbish. How can she possibly think that a bass viol and a cello are the same thing?

   I ſhall […] lay out of my way the whole bede-roll of citations and precedents which they have produced, that heterogeneous heap of rubbiſh, which is only calculated to confound your Lordſhips, and miſlead the argument.

   "Essays about what?" / "Oh—rubbish mostly." / There was a moment's pause. / "Oh, Lovat, don't be so silly. You know you don't think your essays rubbish," put in Harriet. "They're about life, and democracy, and equality, and all that sort of thing," Harriet explained.

   But just now she felt that there was something flippant and unseemly in talking such fantastic rubbish: dreams seemed out of place when reality was so heartbreaking.

4. 4

   obsoleteDebris or ruins of buildings; rubble.

   That Antichriſt is a man exerciſing a kingdome, the head of the vniuerſall Apoſtaſie, […] the Romane monarchie being diuided and fallen downe, out of the rubbiſhes whereof, he is by litle & litle riſen & increaſed, thorow the power and forcible working of Sathan, […]

   E'er since poor Cheapside cross in rubbage lay, […]

   At length th' Almighty caſt a pitying eye, / And mercy ſoftly touch'd his melting breaſt: / He ſaw the town's one half in rubbiſh lie, / And eager flames give on to ſtorm the reſt.

   See, from afar, yon Rock that mates the Sky, / About whoſe Feet ſuch Heaps of Rubbiſh lye: / Such indigeſted Ruin; bleak and bare, / How deſart now it ſtands, expos'd in Air!

adjective

1. 1

   Exceedingly bad; awful.

   This has been a rubbish day, and it’s about to get worse: my mother-in-law is coming to stay.

   Disk interfaces have been around since the year dot, as people soon realised that the microdrive was unreliable, unstable and generally rubbish for the storage of anything, useless except as a rather small beermat.

   A-level students will study Russell Brand's views on drugs and Caitlin Moran's Twitter feed alongside more conventional literature in a new A-level that was immediately denounced as "rubbish" by sources at the Department for Education.

interjection

1. 1

   Used to express that something is exceedingly bad, awful, or terrible.

   - The one day I actually practice my violin, the teacher cancels the lesson. - Aw, rubbish! Though at least this means you have time to play football.

2. 2

   Used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue; balderdash!, nonsense!

   Rubbish! I did nothing of the sort!

   Rubbish, sir, rubbish! Pestilent and pernicious rubbish! An honest man must consider what he owes to his name and his rank. That is the first consideration.

verb

1. 1

   To criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage.

   We're messing around at work, the three of us, getting ready to go home and rubbishing each other's five best side one track ones of all time [...]

   Oh, there is fuel enough for the memoirs, even if Marion's eyes glaze over, periodically, during tea or one of Corrie's rather awful lunches [...]. The names flow forth, and are rubbished or extolled, [...]

   'It's the first real acting job I've had and he completely rubbishes it. My career will be over before it even starts.' / 'I wouldn't take it too personally,' Shelley said as she reloaded the café dishwasher. 'Bryn Dwyer rubbishes just about everything. [...']

   Such irresponsible comments seem to me clearly an attempt for political reasons to rubbish a past that was of a far better quality than anything that exists today.

2. 2

   To litter.

   Speaking at today's (Tuesday) press conference to announce details of the show, Chairman of the Steering Committee, Mr Cheng Chun-ping urged members of the public to sustain their keep clean efforts and to let the message of the campaign slogan -- "There is never any excuse to rubbish your home" stride across the new Millennium.

   In the 1970s there was a hugely successful campaign using the slogan: "You wouldn't rubbish your home. Australia's your home. Don't rubbish Australia." The adverts compared tossing table scraps on to the carpet with throwing food packaging from a car. It worked.

Forms

plural

rubbishes

comparative

more rubbish, rubbisher

superlative

most rubbish, rubbishest

past tense

rubbished

past participle

rubbished

present participle

rubbishing

third person singular

rubbishes