trash

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Things that are thrown away because they are no longer wanted; rubbish.

   Please take the trash out to the bin.

2. 2
   verb

   To throw something away because it is useless or old.

   I decided to trash the old broken chairs.

3. 3
   verb

   To criticize someone or something very harshly.

   The critics trashed the movie in their reviews.

4. 4
   noun

   Something of very poor quality or no value.

   Most of the books in that box were just trash.

From Middle English trasch, trassh, probably a dialectal form of *trass (compare Orkney truss, English dialectal trous), from Old Norse tros (“rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *þrakjaz (“dirt”). Pokorny instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”). Compare Norwegian trask (“lumber, trash, baggage”), Swedish trasa (“rag, cloth, worthless fellow”), Swedish trås (“dry fallen twigs, wood-waste”). Compare also Old English þreax (“rottenness, rubbish”).

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