litter

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“
The unintelligible gabble of the light-hearted bearers of his litter was all that reached his ears.

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Definitions (42)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun A disorderly accumulation of objects; a pile.
  2. noun Carelessly discarded refuse, such as wastepaper: the litter in the streets after a parade.
  3. noun The offspring produced at one birth by a multiparous mammal. See Synonyms at flock1.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (18)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

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This word has been looked up 121 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

pile ·  debris ·  rubbish ·  bundle ·  basket ·  straw ·  furniture ·  sack ·  bit ·  stack ·  manure ·  blanket

Used in the same contextWord Family

litter:   littering ·  litters ·  littered
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman litere, from Medieval Latin lectāria (influenced by Old French lit, bed), from Latin lectus, bed; see legh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also littour; from Middle English liter, litere, lyter, lytere, lytier, from Old French litiere, French litière = Provencal leittiera, littiera = Spanish litera = Portuguese liteira = Italian lettiera as if *lecticaria (Middle Latin also litera, literia, lectoria, after Old French), a litter (cf. lecticarius, a litter-bearer), from lectica, a litter, sedan, from lectus (later F. lit), a bed; from √ legh = English lie: see lectual, lectica, lectern, etc., and lie. All the various senses are derived from the primitive sense, a ‘bed’ or ‘couch,’ whence ‘a portable bed,’ ‘a bed for animals’ (usually of loose straw), etc. It is an error to refer ‘litter,’ a brood, to Icelandic lātr, lāttr, a place where animals produce their young. The English word from this source is the dial. lafter, latter, lighter, lauchter.
  2. from litter, n.
 

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/ˈlɪtər/
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