litter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A disorderly accumulation of objects; a pile.
2. n. Carelessly discarded refuse, such as wastepaper: the litter in the streets after a parade.
3. n. The offspring produced at one birth by a multiparous mammal. See Synonyms at flock¹.
4. n. Material, such as straw, used as bedding for animals.
5. n. An absorbent material, such as granulated clay, for covering the floor of an animal's cage or excretory box.
6. n. An enclosed or curtained couch mounted on shafts and used to carry a single passenger.
7. n. A flat supporting framework, such as a piece of canvas stretched between parallel shafts, for carrying a disabled or dead person; a stretcher.
8. n. The uppermost layer of the forest floor consisting chiefly of fallen leaves and other decaying organic matter.
9. v. To give birth to (a litter).
10. v. To make untidy by discarding rubbish carelessly: Selfish picnickers litter the beach with food wrappers.
11. v. To scatter about: littered towels all over the locker room.
12. v. To supply (animals) with litter for bedding or floor covering.
13. v. To give birth to a litter.
14. v. To scatter litter.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A vehicle consisting of a bed or couch suspended between shafts, and borne by men or horses. It was formerly esteemed as an easy and fashionable method of carriage. Among the Romans the litter (lectica) was borne by slaves set apart for that special service; it was in common use by patricians in the time of Tiberius. In Europe horse-litters were much used before the introduction of coaches.
2. n. 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. For this purpose the stretcher or hand-litter is in use, consisting of canvas, about 6½ feet long by 3 feet wide, securely fastened at the sides to two hard-wood poles about 8 feet long, and convenient for rolling up. Horse- and mule-litters of various forms are used in some armies and in American frontier service.
3. n. A birth or bringing forth of more than one young animal at a time, as of pigs, kittens, rabbits, puppies, etc.
4. n. 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.
5. n. Loose straw, hay, or the like, spread on a floor or the ground as bedding for horses, cows, or other animals.
6. n. 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.
7. n. A condition of disorder or confusion: as, the room is in a litter.
8. To carry in a litter.
9. To scatter straw, hay, or other similar substance on or over for bedding.
10. To spread a bed for; supply with litter: usually with down.
11. To make litter of; use for litter.
12. 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.
13. To scatter things over or about in a careless or slovenly manner.
14. To be supplied with a bed or litter for bedding; sleep in litter: as, to litter in the straw.
15. To bring forth a litter of young animals.
16. n. In forestry, the rubbish of dead leaves and twigs scattered upon the floor of the forest.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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. n. countable The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
3. n. uncountable Material used as bedding for animals.
4. n. uncountable Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
5. n. uncountable Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
6. n. uncountable Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
7. v. intransitive To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
8. v. transitive To give birth to, used of animals.
9. v. intransitive To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
10. v. intransitive To produce a litter of young.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it.
2. n. Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants.
3. n. Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish.
4. n. Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for.
5. n. The young brought forth at one time, by a cat, dog, sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig.
6. v. To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
7. v. To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles.
8. v. 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.
9. v. rare To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
10. v. To produce a litter.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. conveyance consisting of a chair or bed carried on two poles by bearers
2. n. material used to provide a bed for animals
3. v. strew.
4. n. rubbish carelessly dropped or left about (especially in public places)
5. v. make a place messy by strewing garbage around
6. n. the offspring at one birth of a multiparous mammal
7. v. give birth to a litter of animals