litter.
Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
Meaning & usage
Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals. A bed, especially a pile of straw (sometimes also with blankets) used as a bed.
Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals. Animal bedding together with its dung.
A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs. Synonym of stretcher, such a vehicle used for transporting the sick and injured, inclusive of designs carried in the hand.
A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs. Any of the other similar conveyances, such as sedan chairs, hammock litters, and the like.
Synonym of straw, grass, etc. more generally, particularly in plaster, thatch, and mulch.
An act of giving birth to a number of live young at the same time.
The whole group of live young born at the same time, typically in reference to mammals or (figurative, derogatory) unpleasant people or objects.
The runt of the litter is the smallest or weakest of a group of puppies born together.
Waste or debris, originally any mess but now particularly trash left or thrown on the ground.
What are you doing?! There's a litter bin not three feet away.
A bed, a substrate formed from loose materials.
The layer of fallen leaves and other loose organic material on the ground in a forest.
Forest animals use leaf litter in a variety of ways, including as food, shelter, nesting material, bedding, and camouflage.
Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
Change the cat litter fer chrissakes. This place reeks.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-der. Latin lectus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂ Proto-Italic *-ā Latin -a Latin -āria Late Latin lectuāria Old French litiere Anglo-Norman literebor. Middle English litere English litter Inherited from Middle English litere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman litere, from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria, from Latin lectus + -āria.
To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering.
To scatter carelessly about.
To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
To give birth to, in the manner of animals.
To produce a litter of young.
To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-der. Latin lectus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂ Proto-Italic *-ā Latin -a Latin -āria Late Latin lectuāria Old French litiere Anglo-Norman literebor. Middle English litere English litter Inherited from Middle English litere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman litere, from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria, from Latin lectus + -āria.
comparative form of lit: more lit
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-der. Latin lectus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂ Proto-Italic *-ā Latin -a Latin -āria Late Latin lectuāria Old French litiere Anglo-Norman literebor. Middle English litere English litter Inherited from Middle English litere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman litere, from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria, from Latin lectus + -āria.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.