gar·bage

[gahr-bij]
noun
1.
discarded animal and vegetable matter, as from a kitchen; refuse.
2.
any matter that is no longer wanted or needed; trash.
3.
anything that is contemptibly worthless, inferior, or vile: There's nothing but garbage on TV tonight.
4.
worthless talk; lies; foolishness.
5.
Slang. any unnecessary item added to something else, as for appearance only; garnish: I'll have an Old Fashioned, but without the garbage.
6.
useless artificial satellites or parts of rockets floating in space, as satellites that are no longer transmitting information or rocket boosters jettisoned in flight.
7.
Computers. meaningless or unwanted data: That program was not properly debugged and produced nothing but garbage.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English: discarded parts of butchered fowls; compared with garbelage the removal of waste from spices (< Anglo-French, Old French; see garble, -age) or Old French garbage tax on sheaves of grain, though shift of sense, and form in first case, is unclear


2. litter, refuse, junk, rubbish.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To garbage
00:10
Garbage is always a great word to know.
So is slumgullion. Does it mean:
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
Collins
World English Dictionary
garbage (ˈɡɑːbɪdʒ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  worthless, useless, or unwanted matter
2.  Also called: rubbish discarded or waste matter; refuse
3.  computing invalid data
4.  informal nonsense
 
[C15: probably from Anglo-French garbelage removal of discarded matter, of uncertain origin; compare Old Italian garbuglio confusion]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

garbage
1422, originally "giblets of a fowl, waste parts of an animal," later confused with garble in its sense of "siftings, refuse." Many M.E. cookery terms came from Anglo-Fr., so perhaps it is related to O.Fr. jarbage "a bundle of sheaves, entrails," from P.Gmc. *garba-, from PIE *ghrebh- "a handful, a grasp."
Sense of "refuse" is first attested 1583. Garbology "study of waste as a social science" is from 1976.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

garbage definition


  1. n.
    nonsense; gibberish. : He's just talking garbage.
  2. n.
    jumbled computer code. : All I get is garbage on the screen.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Example sentences
Even in the neighborhood where people pick up litter every day, they still have to pay someone to haul off the garbage.
He had gone there to lend support to striking city garbage workers.
Who created a lot of garbage by poor secretaries told to learn how to make so many things that they never wanted to do before.
Vultures play an essential ecological role as garbage collectors and recyclers.
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