Garbage

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

• garbidge

Origin

Middle English "the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste", originally "refuse, what is purged away" from Old French garber "to refine, make neat or clean", of origin, akin to Old High German garawan "to prepare, make ready", Old English Ä¡earwian ("to make ready, adorn"). More at garb, yare, gear

Full definition of garbage

Noun

1. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
2. Nonsense; gibberish.
3. (often attributively) Something or someone worthless.
• 2009, David R. Portney, 129 More Seminar Speaking Success Tips, ISBN 9780967851488, p. 8:Forget about that garbage advice to “act natural”.
4. (computing) Data that cannot or will not be accessed by a program, but are still taking up space.
5. (computing) Data that make no sense to the program trying to use them.

Synonyms

• junk, refuse, rubbish, trash, waste

Antonyms

• artifact, asset, catch, find, prize, recyclable, resource, treasure, valuable

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To eviscerate.
• 1674, John Josselyn, Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63 (quoted in , The Passenger Pigeon, 1907, The Outing Publishing Company):I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.

Synonyms

• gut
• disembowel
• eviscerate

Usage notes

This word is chiefly US.