garbage-can
Definition
- Noun:
- A container for waste: A "garbage-can" is a receptacle, typically made of metal or plastic, used for holding household or commercial waste until it is collected for disposal.
- A metaphorical source of discarded items: Informally, a "garbage-can" can refer to any place or system where unwanted, useless, or rejected things accumulate.
Usage Examples
Physical container:
- He emptied the kitchen garbage-can into the larger outdoor bin. (He transferred waste from the small indoor container to a bigger one.)
- The garbage-can overflowed with food scraps and packaging. (The waste container was too full of discarded materials.)
Metaphorical use:
- That old folder is a garbage-can for outdated project notes. (The folder is a place where useless documents are stored.)
- The internet can feel like a garbage-can of misinformation. (The internet contains a lot of low-quality or false information.)
Advanced Usage
"to be in the garbage-can": to be considered worthless or to have failed.
- After the budget cuts, the entire plan was in the garbage-can. (The plan was completely abandoned or deemed useless.)
"to throw something in the garbage-can": to discard something physically or metaphorically.
- She threw her old notes in the garbage-can. (She physically disposed of them.)
- The company threw the proposal in the garbage-can after the review. (They rejected it completely.)
Variants and Related Words
- Garbage (n): waste material; refuse.
- The garbage must be taken out every week. (Household waste.)
- Can (n): a cylindrical metal container.
- He recycled the aluminum can. (A container for beverages or food.)
- Garbage-can lid (n): the cover for a garbage-can.
- The garbage-can lid blew off in the wind. (The top part of the waste container.)
Synonyms
- Trash can: a container for waste (common in American English).
- Waste bin: a general term for a receptacle for rubbish.
- Dustbin: a container for household waste (common in British English).
- Rubbish bin: another term for a waste container (used in British and Australian English).
Related Idioms
- "Garbage in, garbage out": a phrase meaning that flawed input produces flawed output, often used in computing or data analysis.
- If you feed the program bad data, you get bad results — garbage in, garbage out. (The output is only as good as the input.)
- "One man's trash is another man's treasure": something worthless to one person may be valuable to another.
- He found a broken chair in the garbage-can and restored it beautifully. (The discarded item was valuable to him.)