Adjacent Words

rubbish definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: worthless material that is to be disposed of [syn: rubbish, trash, scrap]
2: nonsensical talk or writing [syn: folderol, rubbish, tripe, trumpery, trash, wish-wash, applesauce, codswallop] v
1: attack strongly

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English robous Date: 15th century 1. useless waste or rejected matter ; trash 2. something that is worthless or nonsensical <few real masterpieces are forgotten and not much rubbish survives — William Bridges-Adams> • rubbishy adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

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

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rubbish Rub"bish, a. Of or pertaining to rubbish; of the quality of rubbish; trashy. --De Quincey.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(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 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. 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 4. If you think that someone is not very good at something, you can say that they are rubbish at 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

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Ruins, fragments, refuse, débris. 2. Litter, lumber, trash, orts, dross, dregs, scum, scoria, sweepings, refuse. 3. Confusion, mingled mass.

Moby Thesaurus

absurdity, afterglow, afterimage, amphigory, attack, babble, babblement, bad-mouth, balance, balderdash, baloney, bibble-babble, bilge, blabber, blather, bombast, bosh, bric-a-brac, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, butt, butt end, candle ends, castaway, castoff, cattle, chaff, chicken feed, chickenshit, clamjamfry, claptrap, clobber, crap, criticize, debris, derelict, destroy, details, detritus, discard, dogie, double-talk, dregs, dregs of society, drivel, drool, dross, dust, end, eyewash, fag end, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, filings, flapdoodle, flotsam, flotsam and jetsam, flummery, folderol, fossil, foundling, fragments, froth, fudge, fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, garbage, gibber, gibberish, gibble-gabble, gimcrackery, gobbledygook, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hokum, holdover, hooey, humbug, husks, jabber, jargon, jetsam, jump all over, jump on, junk, kelter, knickknackery, lagan, leavings, lees, leftovers, litter, lumber, malarkey, minutiae, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, odds and ends, offal, offscourings, offscum, orphan, orts, pack of nonsense, palaver, pan, pap, parings, peanuts, piffle, poppycock, prate, prattle, raff, rags, rant, refuse, reject, rejects, relics, remainder, remains, remnant, residue, residuum, rest, riffraff, rigamarole, rigmarole, roach, rodomontade, rot, rubble, ruins, rump, sawdust, scourings, scrap, scraps, scum, shadow, shavings, shoddy, skimble-skamble, slop, small beer, small change, sordes, straw, stubble, stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence, stump, survival, sweepings, swinish multitude, tommyrot, trace, trash, trifles, trivia, truck, trumpery, twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, vaporing, vermin, vestige, waffling, waif, waifs and strays, waste, wastrel