Other forms: trashed, trashing, trashes
Trash is the things thrown out because nobody wants them any more. Wrappers, packaging, whatever is in the bin.
It is the standard American word, where British English says rubbish, and both countries understand each other. It works figuratively as a strong dismissal, since calling a film trash means it is worthless, and trashy describes something cheap and lurid. As a verb it means to wreck something, so trashing a hotel room is what a band is supposed to do. Talking trash means boasting and insulting an opponent.
1nountrashWaste material that is thrown away.~92%
“He took the trash out before breakfast.”
2verbwreckTo wreck or to criticise harshly.~8%
“They trashed the place before leaving.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: garbage, rubbish
Proto-Indo-European
*dóru — tree
Proto-Germanic
*þrakjaz — dirt
Old Norse
tros — rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs
Middle English
trasch
English, today
trash
From Middle English trasch, trassh, probably a dialectal form of trass (compare Orkney truss, English dialectal trous), from Old Norse tros (“rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic þrakjaz (“dirt”). Pokorny instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European dóru (“tree”). Compare Norwegian trask (“lumber, trash, baggage”), Swedish trasa (“rag, cloth, worthless fellow”), Swedish trås (“dry fallen twigs, wood-waste”). Compare also Old English þreax (“rottenness, rubbish”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA