Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Carelessly discarded refuse, such as wastepaper.
- noun A disorderly accumulation of objects; a pile.
- noun The group of offspring produced at one birth by a mammal.
- noun Material, such as straw, used as bedding for animals.
- noun An absorbent material, such as granulated clay, for covering the floor of an animal's cage or excretory box.
- noun An enclosed or curtained couch mounted on shafts and used to carry a single passenger.
- noun A flat supporting framework, such as a piece of canvas stretched between parallel shafts, for carrying a disabled or dead person; a stretcher.
- noun Fallen leaves and other decaying organic matter that make up the top layer of a forest floor.
- intransitive verb To give birth to (a litter).
- intransitive verb To make untidy by discarding rubbish carelessly.
- intransitive verb To scatter about.
- intransitive verb To be scattered about (an area).
- intransitive verb To include certain items such as expressions throughout (a speech or piece of writing, for example).
- intransitive verb Archaic To supply (animals) with litter for bedding or floor covering.
- intransitive verb To give birth to a litter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A vehicle consisting of a bed or couch suspended between shafts, and borne by men or horses.
- noun A form of hurdle-bed on which a sick or wounded person is conveyed from one point to another, as to a hospital in a city, or to a field-hospital on a battle-field.
- noun A birth or bringing forth of more than one young animal at a time, as of pigs, kittens, rabbits, puppies, etc.
- noun A number of young animals brought forth at a birth: used with reference to mammals which regularly give birth to more than one young at once, as the sow, bitch, eat, rabbit, etc., and only slightingly of human beings.
- noun Loose straw, hay, or the like, spread on a floor or the ground as bedding for horses, cows, or other animals.
- noun Waste matter, as shreds, fragments, or the like, scattered about, as on a floor; scattered rubbish; things strewn about in a careless or slovenly manner; clutter.
- noun A condition of disorder or confusion: as, the room is in a litter.
- To carry in a litter.
- To scatter straw, hay, or other similar substance on or over for bedding.
- To spread a bed for; supply with litter: usually with down.
- To make litter of; use for litter.
- To bring forth; give birth to: said of mammals which usually produce a number at a birth, as the sow, cat, rabbit, bitch, etc., or slightingly of human beings.
- To scatter things over or about in a careless or slovenly manner.
- To be supplied with a bed or litter for bedding; sleep in litter: as, to
litter in the straw. - To bring forth a litter of young animals.
- noun In forestry, the rubbish of dead leaves and twigs scattered upon the floor of the forest.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it.
- noun Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants.
- noun Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish.
- noun Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for.
- noun The young brought forth at one time, by a cat, dog, sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig.
- intransitive verb rare To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
- intransitive verb To produce a litter.
- transitive verb To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
- transitive verb To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles.
- transitive verb To give birth to; to bear; -- said of brutes, esp. those which produce more than one at a birth, and also of human beings, in abhorrence or contempt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun countable A
platform mounted on twoshafts , or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people totransport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol. - noun countable The
offspring of amammal born in onebirth . - noun uncountable
Material used asbedding for animals. - noun uncountable Collectively,
items discarded on the ground. - noun uncountable
Absorbent material used in an animal'slitter tray - noun uncountable Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
- verb intransitive To
drop orthrow trash without properlydisposing of it (asdiscarding inpublic areas rather than trashreceptacles ).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We're knee deep in litter from the plastering of the walls.
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Now, when the word litter appears in the text, it is prefaced with "can become" or is used as a verb. key statistics in the text to reflect the American Chemistry Council's preferred numbers.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011
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In fact, the runt of the litter is our No. 1 ranked netminder: Jean-Francois Berube at just 6-1 and a slender 166 pounds.
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I think my pick of the litter is the cover of Schroeder's Sun of Suns, which also happens to be a fantastic book.
Boing Boing 2007
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Reece says later he was one minute from having the crew carry the patient to the emergency room themselves, even though running that distance with a trauma patient on a litter is just about the last thing you want to do.
The front lines of saving lives David Brown 2010
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Cats are definitely more agile with their paws than a dog is, and they can go in litter boxes, eliminating the need for a daily walking.
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Picked up a wooden hamper/bench unit from Wal-Mart, cut an arch on one end (off-center to the right), cut a piece of 1cm grid plastic (used on many recessed fluorescent lights) from Home Depot to fit the inside bottom of the hamper to catch litter from the cats feet.
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That evening I saw Agnès 'brother snapping up litter from the uneven cobblestone paths of our village.
French Word-A-Day: 2009
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Reece says later he was one minute from having the crew carry the patient to the emergency room themselves, even though running that distance with a trauma patient on a litter is just about the last thing you want to do.
Military medics combine ultramodern and time-honored methods to save lives on the battlefield David Brown 2010
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Reece says later he was one minute from having the crew carry the patient to the emergency room themselves, even though running that distance with a trauma patient on a litter is just about the last thing you want to do.
Military medics combine ultramodern and time-honored methods to save lives on the battlefield David Brown 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word litter
All the etymologies given seem to be for litter (group of animals). I was wondering if litter (trash) could be from the same Latin root whence literature?
March 13, 2010