detritus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals.

   Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.

2. 2
   noun

   Any debris or fragments of disintegrated material.

   But of course: no clutter. No newspapers, no renegade scraps of domestic detritus, no rubber bands, paper clips, coupons, pens or pencils, notebooks, magazines. No knives. Where were the knives?

3. 3
   noun

   loose material (stone fragments and silt etc) that is worn away from rocks

4. 4
   noun

   the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up

5. 5
   noun

   Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.

6. 6
   noun

   Rock consisting of accumulated debris from decayed rocks, like sand, that often is joined by cement.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dētrītus (“(that which is) rubbed away”), from dēterō (“rub away”).