What does rubbish mean?

Definitions for rubbish
ˈrʌb ɪʃrub·bish

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word rubbish.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. rubbish, trash, scrapnoun

    worthless material that is to be disposed of

  2. folderol, rubbish, tripe, trumpery, trash, wish-wash, applesauce, codswallopverb

    nonsensical talk or writing

  3. rubbishverb

    attack strongly

Wiktionary

  1. rubbishnoun

    Garbage, junk, refuse, waste.

    The rubbish is collected every Thursday in Gloucester, but on Wednesdays in Cheltenham.

  2. rubbishnoun

    Nonsense.

    Everything the teacher said during that lesson was rubbish. How can she possibly think that a bass viol and a cello are the same thing?

  3. rubbishverb

    To denounce, to criticise, to denigrate, to disparage.

  4. rubbishadjective

    Exceedingly bad; awful; terrible; crappy.

    This has been a rubbish day, and it's about to get worse: my mother-in-law is coming to stay.

  5. rubbishinterjection

    Expresses that something is exceedingly bad, terrible or awful.

  6. rubbishinterjection

    Expresses that what was recently said is untruth or nonsense.

    Rubbish! I did nothing of the sort!

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

ChatGPT

  1. rubbish

    Rubbish refers to waste material or unwanted items that are discarded and considered useless or valueless. It can include household waste, litter, or any material that is beyond its usefulness and is intended for disposal.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Rubbishnoun

    waste or rejected matter; anything worthless; valueless stuff; trash; especially, fragments of building materials or fallen buildings; ruins; debris

  2. Rubbishadjective

    of or pertaining to rubbish; of the quality of rubbish; trashy

  3. Etymology: [OE. robows, robeux, rubble, originally an Old French plural from an assumed dim. of robe, probably in the sense of trash; cf. It. robaccia trash, roba stuff, goods, wares, robe. Thus, etymologically rubbish is the pl. of rubble. See Robe, and cf. Rubble.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Rubbish

    rub′ish, n. waste matter: the fragments of ruinous buildings: any mingled mass: nonsense: trash: trumpery: litter.—n. Rubb′ish-heap, a pile of rubbish.—adj. Rubb′ishing, trashy: paltry.—n. Rubb′ish-pull′ey, a gin-block.—adj. Rubb′ishy, worthless. [M. E. robows, robeux—O. Fr. robeux, pl. of robel, dim. of robe, robbe, trash, whence also rubble; cf. It. roba, rubbish, spoil.]

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'rubbish' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1299

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'rubbish' in Nouns Frequency: #1685

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce rubbish?

How to say rubbish in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of rubbish in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of rubbish in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of rubbish in a Sentence

  1. Charles Krauthammer:

    I think it’s true that there are tactical reasons for Ryan doing this to protect his members, the more cynical comments have been about [Ryan] looking for his own run for 2020, in the future; he is trying to appease his donors. I think that is rubbish.

  2. Robert Stevens:

    The rubbish that was spouted about Trump yesterday, it’s complete unjustified vitriol against him, i’m not a massive Trump fan but the geezer in my opinion has done nothing wrong.

  3. Ian McKellen:

    For people to complain about it and say they don't want children to see it is absolute rubbish, i know people who don't like gay people and make a fuss. It's a very small moment in the movie, no one should get too excited.

  4. Heiko Ostendorf:

    They think the refugees who come to Germany had nothing back home, lived in corrugated iron huts and should be thankful to have running water here. But that's rubbish, and the idea they're living in wonderland now even though some sleep in tent cities and gymnasiums is absolute nonsense.

  5. Ahmed Abdullah:

    A lot of rubbish like plastics, paper bags ... are thrown outside the city.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

rubbish#10000#15089#100000

Translations for rubbish

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"rubbish." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 11 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/rubbish>.

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