trash
/tɹæʃ/ noun, verb
Forms trashes trashing trashed
- noun (chiefly Canada, US) Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse.
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, metonymic) A container into which things are discarded.
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, figurative) Something worthless or of poor quality. “When your life is trash, you don't have much to lose.”
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, figurative) Media, such as movies and novels, that are entertaining but unsophisticated, crass or aimed at the lowest common denominator. “My guilty pleasure is 80s horror trash.”
- noun A dubious assertion, either for appearing untrue or for being excessively boastful.
- noun (chiefly Southern United States, agriculture) The disused stems, leaves, or vines of a crop, sometimes mixed with weeds, which will either be plowed in as green manure or be removed by raking, grazing, or burning.
- noun (agriculture, uncountable) Loose-leaf tobacco of a low grade, with much less commercial value than the principal grades.
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, slang, derogatory) People of low social status or class. (See, for example, white trash or Eurotrash.)
- verb (US) To discard.
- verb (US) To make into a mess. “The burglars trashed the house.”
- verb (US) To beat soundly in a game.
- verb (transitive) To treat as trash, or worthless matter; hence, to spurn, humiliate, or disrespect.
- verb To free from trash, or worthless matter; hence, to lop; to crop. “to trash the rattoons of sugar cane”
- verb To hold back by a trash or leash, as a dog in pursuing game; hence, to retard, encumber, or restrain; to clog; to hinder vexatiously.
Synonyms
refuse trashcan trash can trashbin trash bin garbage can rubbish bin bin garbage rubbish scrap stan admirer aficionado buff connoisseur enthusiast devotee maniac fan scum folderol tripe trumpery wish-wash applesauce codswallop methamphetamine methamphetamine hydrochloride Methedrine
Etymology
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun That which is worthless or useless; rubbish; refuse.
- noun Especially, loppings and leaves of trees, bruised sugar cane, or the like.
- verb To free from trash, or worthless matter; hence, to lop; to crop, as to trash the rattoons of sugar cane. B. Edwards.
- verb To treat as trash, or worthless matter; hence, to spurn, humiliate, or crush. [Obs.]
Etymology [Cf. Icel. tros rubbish, leaves, and twigs picked up for fuel, trassi a slovenly fellow, Sw. trasa a rag, tatter.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “trash”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details