What does garbage mean?
Garbage is the everyday English word for discarded material, especially household and commercial refuse. It is also used figuratively for talk, writing, performances, or ideas that are worthless or unintelligible. In informal contexts, food that is spoiled, unappetizing, or nutritionally poor may be called garbage, and the expression can be an insulting way of calling someone or something contemptible. The verb garbage is chiefly informal and can mean to spoil, contaminate, or ruin something; in North American usage, it can also mean to kill. The noun is normally uncountable in everyday English, so speakers say a piece of garbage rather than a garbage, though garbages appears in formal or specialized contexts. British and American speakers both use the word, although rubbish is especially common in Britain and trash in the United States. Etymologically, garbage began as a term for coarse cloth or wrapping and later developed its modern sense of refuse.
Discarded or waste material, especially household or commercial refuse; figuratively, anything considered worthless, nonsensical, or contemptible.
"The apartment building's garbage is collected every Tuesday morning."
Normally uncountable in everyday usage. Calling a person garbage is an insult, and the word can also denote spoiled or poor-quality food.
To spoil, contaminate, or ruin something; informally, to kill someone.
"They deliberately garbaged the food supply before the enemy could use it."
Chiefly informal and especially common in North American English.
Rare in ordinary usage. Garbage is normally uncountable, and a piece of garbage is the usual way to refer to an individual item.
"The restaurant's food garbages were collected by the sanitation service."
Garbage once referred to coarse cloth used to wrap waste; the word eventually came to mean the waste itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does garbage come from?
The word entered English in Middle English from Old French garbe, a bundle or wrapping of straw, through Italian garbo and Medieval Latin garba. Its earliest recorded uses refer to sacking cloth or material used for bundling and wrapping. By the early modern period, it had developed the sense of discarded waste and was later extended figuratively to anything worthless or nonsensical.
Related word forms
How garbage is actually used
As a noun, garbage is standard in everyday British and American English, though rubbish is especially common in Britain and trash in the United States. Calling a person garbage is strongly insulting. The verb is informal and most common in North American English; its meanings include ruining or contaminating something and, more starkly, killing someone.
Easily confused with garbage
Garbage means discarded or worthless material, whereas garble means to make speech, writing, or a message difficult to understand.