Standard Lemma guide

rubbish

adj · intj · noun · verb · 12 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ʌbɪʃ
  • CMU ARPABET: R AH1 B IH0 SH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Exceedingly bad; awful.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, colloquial

Examples

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

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: abysmal, crappy, horrendous, shitty, terrible, atrocious, awful, bad, chronic, coarse, corny, crap, crapalicious, crummy, deityforsaken, dire, disagreeable, dismal, dogshit, dreadful, fifth-rate, foul, fourth-rate, godawful, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrid, horrible, horrific, inadequate, incompetent, inelegant, intolerable, inferior, lackluster, loathsome, lousy, miserable, naff, negative, odious, ordinary, pathetic, peak, piss-poor, rotten, rubbish, shitawful, sixth-rate, sloppy, subpar, unfavorable, wack, ass, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crappo, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, cruddy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, gash, garbage, god-awful, low, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, punk, rinky-dink, ropy, sad, schlocky, scrubby, second-rate, shoddy, slazy, slight, slim, shit, shite, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, trashy, under par, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

2

intj

Meaning 2

Used to express that something is exceedingly bad, awful, or terrible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, colloquial

Examples

  • - The one day I actually practice my violin, the teacher cancels the lesson. - Aw, rubbish! Though at least this means you have time to play football.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

intj

Meaning 3

Used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue; balderdash!, nonsense!

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, colloquial

Examples

  • Rubbish! I did nothing of the sort!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bollocks, bullshit

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, uncountable, usually

Examples

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

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cultch, crap, debris, dreck, drek, garbage, gash, junk, litter, pelf, piece of crap, piece of garbage, piece of shit, pile of crap, pile of shit, piece of trash, rubbish, refuse, roughage, service item, shit, stuff, trash, waste

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

An item, or items, of low quality.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, broadly, uncountable, usually

Examples

  • Much of what they sell is rubbish.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: garbage, trash, cheapie, crapola, gash, hunk of junk, load of bull, load of crap, load of shit, piece of crap, piece of garbage, piece of junk, piece of shit, piece of trash, pile of crap, pile of shit, rubbish, schlock, slop, tripe

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

Nonsense.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, broadly, uncountable, usually

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?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil, Bandini, baragouin, batcrap, batshit, bilgewater, blah, blather, blatherskite, bobbins, bollocks, bosh, BS, bull, bullcrap, bulldust, bull feathers, bullshit, bullspeak, bunk, bunkum, bushwah, clamjamfrey, claptrap, cobblers, codswallop, crap, crock, crock of shit, double Dutch, double talk, doublespeak, dribble, drivel, eyewash, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, flim-flam, flizz, flummery, folderol, foolishness, footle, framis, fuckery, fuckry, fudge, galimatias, Gallophone, garbage, garble, gash, gibber, gibberish, gobbledygook, gossip, Greek, guff, gup, hoax, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hokum, hooey, horse cock, horsefeathers, horse hockey, horse piss, horse puckey, horseshit, humbug, Irish bull, jabber, jabberwocky, jargon, jibber-jabber, jimjam, jive, junk, lallation, macaroni, malarkey, manure, meaninglessness, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, nertz, nonsense, pie in the sky, piffle, pigswill, poppycock, prattle, put-on, rhubarb, rhubarb rhubarb, rigmarole, rot, rubbish, ruse, santorum, shit, shite, skimble-skamble, squit, stuff, stuff and nonsense, tommy-rot, tosh, trittle trattle, tush, trash, tripe, twaddle, wass, whiff-whaff, word salad

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

Debris or ruins of buildings; rubble.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: detritus, remains, debris, ruins, rubbish, rubble, wreckage

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, colloquial, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To litter.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Commonwealth, Hong-Kong, Ireland, UK, colloquial, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

noun

Meaning 10

nonsensical talk or writing

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: folderol, tripe, trumpery, trash, wish-wash, applesauce, codswallop

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: drivel, garbage

11

noun

Meaning 11

worthless material that is to be disposed of

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: trash, scrap

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: waste, waste material, waste matter, waste product

Narrower terms: scrap metal, debris, dust, junk, rubble, detritus, litter

12

verb

Meaning 12

attack strongly

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: attack, round, assail, lash out, snipe, assault

History

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English robous (“rubbish, building rubble”), further origin uncertain; possibly from Anglo-Norman rubous, rubouse, rubbouse (“refuse, waste material; building rubble”), and compare Anglo-Latin rebbussa, robousa, robusium, robusum, rubisum, rubusa, rubusium (although the Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Latin words may be derived from the English word instead of the other way around, as there are no known Old French cognates of the word). The English word may be related to rubble, though the connection is unclear. Possibly derived ultimately from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", also possibly "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”). Compare Swedish rubba (“to move, displace, dislodge, upset”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Across languages

Translations

95 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 垃圾 (lāji) — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Chinese Mandarin: 爛 /烂 (làn) — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Finnish: surkea — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Finnish: kurja — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • French: pourri — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Japanese: 屑のような (kuzu no yōna) — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Japanese: ゴミのような (gomi no yōna) — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Portuguese: horrível — exceedingly bad — see also awful
  • Finnish: pahus — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • German: Müll — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Hebrew: שטויות (shtu'yot) — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Hungarian: szemét — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Italian: schifezza — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Italian: sciocchezza — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Japanese: クズ (kuzu) — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Japanese: ゴミ (gomi) — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Portuguese: porcaria — used to express that something is exceedingly bad
  • Bulgarian: глупости (gluposti) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Chinese Mandarin: 廢話 /废话 (fèihuà) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Chinese Mandarin: 胡扯 (húchě) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Dutch: onzin — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Finnish: roskaa — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • French: n'importe quoi — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Georgian: სისულელე (sisulele) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • German: Quatsch — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Italian: corbelleria — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Italian: cretinata — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Italian: assurdità — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Japanese: くだらない (kudaranai) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Japanese: ばかばかしい (bakabakashii) — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Māori: meho — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Portuguese: besteira — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Swahili: upuuzi — used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue
  • Bulgarian: боклук (bokluk) — items of low quality
  • Dutch: brol — items of low quality
  • Finnish: roska — items of low quality
  • German: Ramsch — items of low quality
  • Korean: 개털 (gaeteol) — items of low quality
  • Serbo-Croatian: smeće — items of low quality
  • Ottoman Turkish: مارده (marda) — items of low quality
  • Bulgarian: глупости (gluposti) — nonsense
  • Chinese Mandarin: 胡扯 (húchě) — nonsense
  • Chinese Mandarin: 瞎掰 (xiābāi) — nonsense
  • Chinese Mandarin: 废话 (fèihuà) — nonsense
  • Czech: nesmysl — nonsense
  • Danish: vrøvl — nonsense
  • Finnish: roska — nonsense
  • Finnish: luikuri — nonsense
  • Finnish: palturi — nonsense
  • Finnish: lööperi — nonsense
  • Finnish: pöty — nonsense
  • French: absurdités — nonsense
  • French: inepties — nonsense
  • German: Quatsch — nonsense
  • German: Blödsinn — nonsense
  • German: Unsinn — nonsense
  • German: Mist — nonsense
  • Greek: τρίχες (tríches) — nonsense
  • Greek: αηδία (aïdía) — nonsense
  • Hungarian: badarság — nonsense
  • Hungarian: butaság — nonsense
  • Hungarian: ostobaság — nonsense
  • Hungarian: nonszensz — nonsense
  • Hungarian: képtelenség — nonsense
  • Hungarian: marhaság — nonsense
  • Hungarian: hülyeség — nonsense
  • Irish: ráiméis — nonsense
  • Italian: corbelleria — nonsense
  • Italian: cretinata — nonsense
  • Italian: assurdità — nonsense
  • Japanese: くだらないこと (kudaranai koto) — nonsense
  • Japanese: ばかばかしいこと (bakabakashii koto) — nonsense
  • Korean: 개털 (gaeteol) — nonsense
  • Norwegian: tullprat — nonsense
  • Portuguese: besteira — nonsense
  • Portuguese: asneira — nonsense
  • Russian: чепуха́ (čepuxá) — nonsense
  • Russian: ерунда́ (jerundá) — nonsense
  • Russian: вздор (vzdor) — nonsense
  • Russian: чушь (čušʹ) — nonsense
  • Scottish Gaelic: sgudal — nonsense
  • Serbo-Croatian: smeće — nonsense
  • Serbo-Croatian: bezvezarije — nonsense
  • Swedish: skitsnack — nonsense
  • Bulgarian: руини (ruini) — debris or ruins of buildings
  • Finnish: rauniot — debris or ruins of buildings
  • Finnish: rakennusjäte — debris or ruins of buildings
  • French: décombres — debris or ruins of buildings
  • Hindi: मलबा (malbā) — debris or ruins of buildings
  • Serbo-Croatian: šuta — debris or ruins of buildings
  • Finnish: haukkua — to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate
  • Finnish: moittia — to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate
  • Japanese: こき下ろす (kokiorosu) — to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate
  • Japanese: 酷評する (kokuhyō suru) — to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate
  • Portuguese: criticar — to criticize, denigrate — see also criticize, denigrate