Definition of rubbish
- few real masterpieces are forgotten and not much rubbish survives
- —William Bridges-Adams
Please, pick the rubbish up off the ground.
I think what he says is absolute rubbish!
“I'm sorry, but I had to do it.” “Rubbish!”
The food at that restaurant is complete rubbish.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rubbish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use: 15th century
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearbalderdash, baloney (also boloney), beans, bilge, blarney, blather, bosh, bull [slang], bunk, bunkum (or buncombe), claptrap, drivel, folderol (also falderal), folly, foolishness, fudge, hogwash, hokeypokey, hokum, hooey, humbug, humbuggery, jazz, malarkey (also malarky), moonshine, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, rot, senselessness, silliness, stupidity, tommyrot, trash, trumpery, twaddle;
levelheadedness, rationality, reasonability, reasonableness, sensibleness;
common sense, horse sense, sense;
discernment, judgment (or judgement), wisdom;
absurdity, asininity, foolery, idiocy, imbecility, inaneness, inanity, insanity, kookiness, lunacy;
absurdness, craziness, madness, senselessness, witlessness;
monkey business, monkeyshine(s), shenanigan(s), tomfoolery;
gas, hot air, rigmarole (also rigamarole);
: things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown out
: words or ideas that are foolish or untrue
: something that is worthless, unimportant, or of poor quality
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for rubbish Spanish Central: Translation of rubbish Nglish: Translation of rubbish for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of rubbish for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about rubbish
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