trash

The word “trash” means discarded material; garbage or rubbish. In plain terms, garbage, or by extension anything worthless — and as a verb, to throw away, wreck, or badly criticize something.

“Trash” is pronounced trash (/tɹæʃ/ in IPA).

Here is “trash” used in a sentence: “Take the trash out before the truck comes on Monday.”

Words with a similar meaning to “trash” include garbage (1-3), junk (1,3), rubbish, waste, cultch and debris.

Depending on how it is used, “trash” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “trash” comes from Middle English. From Middle English trasch, likely from Old Norse tros, "rubbish, fallen twigs and leaves.".

“Trash” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Trash” has 5 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: discarded material; garbage or rubbish.

In everyday American English the two are near-synonyms for waste. A traditional distinction is that garbage means wet, food-related waste that rots, while trash means dry discarded items such as paper, packaging, and broken objects. Most people now use both words loosely for rubbish of almost any kind.

Trash is waste meant for disposal, sent to landfill or incineration. Recycling is material such as certain paper, glass, metal, and plastics that is collected separately so it can be processed into new products. Sorting recyclables out of the trash reduces how much ultimately ends up buried in landfill.

"Trash" is the usual word in American English, while British English tends to prefer "rubbish." Both mean discarded material. "Garbage" is also mainly American, and "waste" works in both varieties. Thanks to American film and television, "trash" is widely understood by English speakers everywhere.

Yes. Informally, calling something "trash" means it is worthless or of very poor quality, as in "that movie was trash." Applied to a person it becomes a strong insult, so the figurative sense should be used with care. The literal meaning is simply discarded material or rubbish.