different between riffraff vs garbage

English

Alternative forms

• riff-raff

Etymology

From Old French rif et raf (“one and all”), of Germanic origin. The first word is from rifler (“to scrape off”) and the last is from raffler, related to rafler (“to plunder”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f?æf/

Noun

riffraff (usually uncountable, plural riffraffs)

1. The rabble; crowds; the common people.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:commonalty
2. Sweepings; refuse.

Derived terms

• riffraffish

Translations

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

English

Alternative forms

• garbidge (obsolete or eye dialect)

Etymology

Late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”).

Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ?earwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /????b?d??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????b?d??/
• (US, humorous, imitating a French pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??(?)?b???/
• Hyphenation: gar?bage

Noun

garbage (uncountable) (chiefly US, Canada, Australia)

1. Food waste material of any kind.

   Garbage is collected on Tuesdays; rubbish on Fridays

2. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.

   The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.

3. A place or receptacle for waste material.

   He threw the newspaper into the garbage.

4. Nonsense; gibberish.
5. (often attributively) Something or someone worthless.
6. (obsolete) The bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.

Synonyms

• junk, refuse, rubbish, trash, waste
• See also Thesaurus:trash

Antonyms

• artifact, asset, catch, find, prize, recyclable, resource, treasure, valuable

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

garbage (third-person singular simple present garbages, present participle garbaging, simple past and past participle garbaged)

1. (transitive, chiefly US, Canada, obsolete) to eviscerate
   • 1674, John Josselyn, Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63 (quoted in William Butts Mershon, The Passenger Pigeon, 1907, The Outing Publishing Company):

     I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.

   Synonyms: disembowel, eviscerate, gut

Adjective

garbage (not comparable)

1. (informal) bad, crap, shitty

See also

• Wikipedia article on garbage

Middle English

Alternative forms

• gabage

Etymology

From a derivative of Old French garber.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ar?ba?d??(?)/

Noun

garbage (plural garbages)

1. bird dung
2. entrails, offal

Descendants

• English: garbage
• Yola: graabache, graapish

References

• “garb??e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.