Wastebasket

noun, verb

noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A usually small indoor receptacle for items that are to be discarded; a rubbish bin.
  2. 2
    a container with an open top; for discarded paper and other rubbish wordnet
  3. 3
    Any region or grouping that is worthless or meaningless. broadly, figuratively

    "The order Insectivora provides such a taxonomic wastebasket in classifications of the placental mammals."

Verb
  1. 1
    To discard in a wastebasket. transitive

    "I was aweary, aweary, and I put it in the waste basket. Ten days later the bill came again, and with it a shadowy threat. I waste-basketed it."

Synonyms

All synonyms
basketcircular filewaste basketwaste-paper basketwastepaper basketwastepaper basket

Example

More examples

"Tom threw the letter into the wastebasket."

Etymology

From waste + basket.

Related phrases

wastebasket taxonwastepaper basket

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.