garbage

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a receptacle where waste can be discarded

   I tossed the moldy bread into the garbage.

2. 2
   noun

   Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.

   The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   A place or receptacle for waste material.

   He threw the newspaper into the garbage.

5. 5
   noun

   Nonsense; gibberish.

   This machine translation is garbage.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   An 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.

8. 8
   verb

   to eviscerate

   I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.

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