rubbish

1. (chiefly Commonwealth) Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.Examples: "The rubbish is collected every Thursday in Gloucester, but on Wednesdays in Cheltenham."; "What traſh is Rome? / What Rubbiſh and what Offall? when it ſerues / For the baſe matter, to illuminate / So vile a thing as Cæsar."; "[T]he Employments of the common Ants or Workers […] are partly the Management of the Young, and the Building their little Hills of Straw, Rubbiſh, and Particles of Earth, mixed with Blades of Graſs, into little Mounds or Ramparts, on which to expoſe the Eggs and Nymphs to the Sun-beams; their other great Employment is, in collecting Proviſions."Synonyms: cultch, crap, debris, dreck, drek, garbage, junk, litterCommonwealthuncountableusually

2. (by extension, chiefly Commonwealth) An item, or items, of low quality.Examples: "Much of what they sell is rubbish."; "[W]e may add that publications of this nature always contain much rubbiſh to make up the bulk; for to produce a neat collection of true wit, requires talents and judgment that would ſcarcely ſtoop to the taſk."; ""And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" / "No, sah—nuffn' else.""Commonwealthbroadlyuncountableusually

3. (by extension, chiefly Commonwealth) Nonsense.Examples: "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?"; "I ſhall […] lay out of my way the whole bede-roll of citations and precedents which they have produced, that heterogeneous heap of rubbiſh, which is only calculated to confound your Lordſhips, and miſlead the argument."; ""Essays about what?" / "Oh—rubbish mostly." / There was a moment's pause. / "Oh, Lovat, don't be so silly. You know you don't think your essays rubbish," put in Harriet. "They're about life, and democracy, and equality, and all that sort of thing," Harriet explained."Synonyms: absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloneyCommonwealthbroadlyuncountableusually

4. (archaic) Debris or ruins of buildings; rubble.Examples: "That Antichriſt is a man exerciſing a kingdome, the head of the vniuerſall Apoſtaſie, […] the Romane monarchie being diuided and fallen downe, out of the rubbiſhes whereof, he is by litle & litle riſen & increaſed, thorow the power and forcible working of Sathan, […]"; "E'er since poor Cheapside cross in rubbage lay, […]"; "At length th' Almighty caſt a pitying eye, / And mercy ſoftly touch'd his melting breaſt: / He ſaw the town's one half in rubbiſh lie, / And eager flames give on to ſtorm the reſt."archaicuncountableusually