different between rubbish vs garbage

English

Etymology

From Middle English r?b?us (“rubbish, building rubble”), further origin uncertain; possibly from Anglo-Norman rubous, rubouse, rubbouse (“refuse, waste material; building rubble”), and compare Late Latin rebbussa, robousa, robusium, robusum, rubisum, rubusa, rubusium (although the Anglo-Norman and Latin words may be derived from the English word instead of the other way around). The English word may be related to rubble, though the connection is unclear.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???b??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???b??/, /???-/
• Hyphenation: rub?bish

Noun

rubbish (usually uncountable, plural rubbishes)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trash
2. (by extension, chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) An item, or items, of low quality.
3. (by extension, chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) Nonsense.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
4. (archaic) Debris or ruins of buildings.

Alternative forms

• rubbage (now dialectal)

Derived terms

Related terms

• rubble (possibly)

Translations

Adjective

rubbish (comparative more rubbish, superlative most rubbish)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain, colloquial) Exceedingly bad; awful.

   Synonyms: abysmal, crappy, horrendous, shitty, terrible; see also Thesaurus:bad, Thesaurus:low-quality

Translations

Interjection

rubbish (chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand, colloquial)

1. Used to express that something is exceedingly bad, awful, or terrible.

2. Used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue; balderdash!, nonsense!

   Synonyms: bollocks, bullshit

Translations

Verb

rubbish (third-person singular simple present rubbishes, present participle rubbishing, simple past and past participle rubbished)

1. (transitive, chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand, colloquial) To criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage. [from c. 1950s (Australia, New Zealand)]

Derived terms

• rubbisher

Translations

References

Further reading

• waste on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “rubbish”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

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.