noun / verb

rubbish

RUHB-ish/ˈrʌbɪʃ/

Material regarded as worthless and fit to discard.

Crushed cans and broken pottery lie in a heap of rubbish.

A small heap of discarded, broken household material beside an open rubbish bin: crushed cans, torn cardboard, crumpled paper and a shattered flowerpot.

Etymology

rubbishAnglo-Frenchwaste or broken material

Anglo-French rubouses referred to waste or broken material, especially demolition debris. This concrete sense broadened to worthless stuff and figuratively to nonsense; its deeper origin is unknown.

In context

Keep It Clean1:40

under a pile of rubbish this thing has been turned into a bin

Cleaning up an entire neighbourhood

More examples

We clear rubbish from the yard before planting flowers.
Please put your rubbish in the trash can.
Volunteers collect bags of rubbish along the river.

Forms

rubbish · rubbishes · rubbished · rubbishing

Similar words

trash: Trash is the more usual American term for discarded material.
garbage: Garbage often refers specifically to food scraps and household waste.
debris: Debris emphasizes scattered fragments left after damage or destruction.