rubbish nounEtymology: Middle English robousDate: 15th century
1. useless waste or rejected matter ;trash2.
something that is worthless or nonsensical <few real masterpieces are
forgotten and not much rubbish survives — William Bridges-Adams>
• rubbishyadjective
rubbish n. & v. --n. esp. Brit. 1 waste material; debris, refuse, litter. 2 worthless material or articles; trash. 3 (often as int.) absurd ideas or suggestions; nonsense. --v.tr.
colloq. 1 criticize severely. 2 reject as worthless. Derivatives: rubbishy adj. Etymology: ME f. AF rubbous etc., perh. f. RUBBLE
rubbish
(rubbishes, rubbishing, rubbished)
1. Rubbish consists of unwanted things or waste material such as used paper, empty tins
and bottles, and waste food. (mainly BRIT; in AM, usually use garbage, trash)
...unwanted household rubbish...= refuse
N-UNCOUNT
2. If you think that something is of very poor quality, you can say that it is
rubbish. (BRIT INFORMAL)
He described her book as absolute rubbish.N-UNCOUNT
3. If you think that an idea or a statement is foolish or wrong, you can say that it is
rubbish. (mainly BRIT INFORMAL)
He's talking rubbish...These reports are total and utter rubbish.= nonsense
N-UNCOUNT
4. If you think that someone is not very good at something, you can say that they are
rubbishat it. (BRIT INFORMAL)
He was rubbish at his job...I tried playing golf, but I was rubbish.≠ great
ADJ: v-link ADJ, usu ADJ at n
5. If you rubbish a person, their ideas or their work, you say they are of little
value. (BRIT INFORMAL; in AM, use trash)
Five whole pages of script were devoted to rubbishing her political opponents...VERB: V n
rubbish
ˈrʌbɪʃ n. & v. --n. esp. Brit. 1 waste material; debris, refuse,
litter. 2 worthless material or articles; trash. 3 (often as int.) absurd
ideas or suggestions; nonsense. --v.tr. colloq. 1 criticize severely. 2
reject as worthless. øørubbishy adj. [ME f. AF rubbous etc., perh. f. RUBBLE]
Rubbish \Rub"bish\, n. [OE. robows, robeux, rubble, originally
an Old French plural from an assumed dim. of robe, probably
in the sense of trash; cf. It. robaccia trash, roba stuff,
goods, wares, robe. Thus, etymologically rubbish is the pl.
of rubble. See Robe, and cf. Rubble.]
Waste or rejected matter; anything worthless; valueless
stuff; trash; especially, fragments of building materials or
fallen buildings; ruins; d['e]bris.
What rubbish and what offal! --Shak.
he saw the town's one half in rubbish lie. --Dryden.
Rubbish pulley. See Gin block, under Gin.
rubbish
ˈrʌbɪʃ n.
1 refuse, waste, debris, rubble, detritus, litter, garbage, sweepings, dross, dregs,
residue, leftovers, remnants, lees, scraps, fragments, leavings, residuum, junk, rejects,
Chiefly US trash Slang chiefly US dreck: Private companies are now contracted to remove household
rubbish weekly.
2 (stuff and) nonsense, balderdash, moonshine, gibberish, gobbledegook or gobbledygook,
tommy-rot, bunkum, trash, garbage, twaddle, Colloq rot, flapdoodle, crap, hokum, codswallop, bosh,
piffle, hooey, bunk, malarkey, poppycock, boloney or baloney, eyewash, hogwash, bilge-water,
bull, Scots havers, Brit tosh, gammon, US a crock, horse feathers, gurry, Slang rot, Brit (a
load of (old)) cobblers, Taboo slang bullshit, horseshit, US a crock of shit: What she told
you about how I treated her is absolute rubbish. --v.
3 criticize, attack, destroy, Colloq clobber, pan, Chiefly US trash, Slang jump on,
Chiefly US and Canadian bad-mouth, jump all over: In his latest book he rubbishes the newspaper
that had given his previous book a bad review.
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