The difference between Litter and Rubbish

When used as nouns, litter means a platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol, whereas rubbish means garbage, junk, refuse, trash, waste.

When used as verbs, litter means to drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles), whereas rubbish means to criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage.


Rubbish is also adjective with the meaning: exceedingly bad.

check bellow for the other definitions of Litter and Rubbish

  1. Litter as a noun (countable):

    A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.

  2. Litter as a noun (collective, countable):

    The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.

  3. Litter as a noun (uncountable):

    Material used as bedding for animals.

  4. Litter as a noun (uncountable):

    Collectively, items discarded on the ground.

  5. Litter as a noun (uncountable):

    Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray

  6. Litter as a noun (uncountable):

    Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.

  7. Litter as a noun:

    A covering of straw for plants.

  1. Litter as a verb (intransitive):

    To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).

  2. Litter as a verb (transitive):

    To scatter carelessly about.

  3. Litter as a verb (transitive):

    To strew (a place) with scattered articles.

  4. Litter as a verb (transitive):

    To give birth to, used of animals.

  5. Litter as a verb (intransitive):

    To produce a litter of young.

  6. Litter as a verb (transitive):

    To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.

  7. Litter as a verb (intransitive):

    To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.

  1. Rubbish as a noun (chiefly, Australia, New Zealand, Britain):

    Garbage, junk, refuse, trash, waste.

    Examples:

    "The rubbish is collected every Thursday in Gloucester, but on Wednesdays in Cheltenham."

  2. Rubbish as a noun (chiefly, Australia, New Zealand, Britain):

    Items of low quality.

    Examples:

    "Much of what they sell is rubbish."

  3. Rubbish as a noun (chiefly, Australia, New Zealand, Britain):

    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?"

  4. Rubbish as a noun (archaic):

    Debris or ruins of buildings.

  1. Rubbish as an adjective (chiefly, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, colloquial):

    Exceedingly bad; awful.

    Examples:

    "synonyms abysmacrappy horrendous shitty terrible; ''see also'' [[Thesaurus:bad]], [[Thesaurus:low-quality]]"

    "This has been a rubbish day, and it’s about to get worse: my mother-in-law is coming to stay."

  1. Rubbish as a verb (transitive, chiefly, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, colloquial):

    To criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage.