litter
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: medicine
sciences
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-der.
Latin lectus
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āzijos
Latin -āriusnom.
Latin -ārius
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.
Inflected forms:
form: litters
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: liter
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: litere
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: lytter
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: lyttre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: littor
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: littour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: litre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: licter
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: letter
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: lictier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: licture
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: litour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: littier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: littre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: litters
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: littering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: littered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: littered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: liter
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: litere
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: lytter
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: lyttre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: littor
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: littour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: litre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: licter
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: letter
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: lictier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: licture
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: litour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: littier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: littre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Quen he had made me hale and fere
As pelows ben to chambres agreable
 So is harde strawe lytter for the stable.
To place daily under those Animals... a sufficient quantity of fresh New Straw, well spread, which is call'd making of Litter.
John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsee in Aylesbury of the king in soccage, by the service of finding litter for the king's bed, viz. in summer grass or herbs, and in winter straw.
The afterwards dry the horsedung in the sun, beat it with a mallet through fine sieves, and make it into litter for the horses; for no straw can be obtained for litter in Constantinople.
gloss: Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
examples: Near-synonyms: pallet, straw bed, hay bed (all broadly synonymous)
The traitours sought the Kyng... yn the withdrawyng chaumburs, yn the litters, undir the presses.
Tho laye they doun on a lytier made of strawe, the foxe, hys wyf and hys chyldren wente alle to slepe.
They slept upon litters of jungle grasses, and for covering at night Jane Porter had only an old ulster that belonged to Clayton, the same garment that he had worn upon that memorable trip to the Wisconsin woods.
gloss: Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Silkworms... must be well cleansed from the litter.
The heir of an estate... troubled himself little about decorating his abode, and, if he attempted decoration, seldom produced anything but deformity. The litter of a farmyard gathered under the windows of his bedchamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry bushes grew close to his hall door.
gloss: A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: ... In a lytter made tho full royall...
Glou. There is a Litter ready, lay him in't,
 And driue toward Douer friend...
gloss: A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: He ordeyned lyttyers for the wounded knyghtes.
gloss: A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
countable
examples: When they went out, they sat in litters, which were curtained.
"The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face.
gloss: Synonym of straw, grass, etc. more generally, particularly in plaster, thatch, and mulch.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
uncountable
gloss: An act of giving birth to a number of live young at the same time.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
examples: Let new planted Elms be kept moist by frequent refreſhings upon ſome half-rotten Fern, or Litter laid about the foot of the ſtem...
gloss: The whole group of live young born at the same time, typically in reference to mammals or (figurative, derogatory) unpleasant people or objects.
pos: noun
tags: collective
countable
examples: A Wolf came to a Sow, and very Kindly Offer'd to take care of her Litter.
Strongly-marked differences occasionally appear in the young of the same litter.
When a man had married into a family where there was a whole litter of women, he might have plenty to put up with if he choose.
The runt of the litter is the smallest or weakest of a group of puppies born together.
gloss: Waste or debris, originally any mess but now particularly trash left or thrown on the ground.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Near-synonyms: garbage; see also Thesaurus:trash
What are you doing?! There's a litter bin not three feet away.
Strephon, who found the room was void
 And Betty otherwise employed,
 Stole in and took a strict survey
 Of all the litter as it lay....
The British people seem incapable of avoiding the habit of leaving litter wherever they go, and the railways certainly seem to receive their fair share of it, in carriages and on stations.
In the case of a simple problem such as littering, the success or failure of a solution can immediately be assessed once and for all. A successful solution is one that results in no litter being present. Assuming the solution did not involve summarily executing anyone suspected of being about to drop litter, it is unlikely to have significant second-order effects.
gloss: A bed, a substrate formed from loose materials.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncommon
examples: Having first made a litter of shingles, planks or billets, with a layer of charcoal powder several inches in thickness...
gloss: The layer of fallen leaves and other loose organic material on the ground in a forest.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Litter, that portion of the forest floor which is not in an advanced state of decomposition.
Forest animals use leaf litter in a variety of ways, including as food, shelter, nesting material, bedding, and camouflage.
gloss: Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Change the cat litter fer chrissakes. This place reeks.
gloss: To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering.
gloss: To scatter carelessly about.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Their Clamour, 'lighting from their Chairs, / Grew lowder, all the way up Stairs; / At Entrance louder, where they found, / The Room with Volumes litter'd round; […]
A single written sheet of paper was on the table near her—but there were more than a hundred others, torn across, littering the floor.
gloss: To give birth to, in the manner of animals.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.
The son that she did litter here, / A freckled whelp hagborn.
gloss: To produce a litter of young.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: A desert […] where the she-wolf still littered.
gloss: To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Tell them how they litter their jades.
For his ease, well litter'd was the floor.
gloss: To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The inn where he and his horse litter'd.
Derived words: antilitter
belitter
cat litter
clitty litter
freaklitter
hammock litter
horse litter
horse-litter
horselitter
interlitter
killer litter
kitty litter
leaf litter
leaflitter
litterbag
litterbasket
litter bin
litter box
litter bug
litterbug
litterfall
litter frog
litterless
litter lout
littermate
litter moth
litter picking
litter tray
littery
make litter of
microlitter
mule litter
mule-litter
mulelitter
pick of the litter
plant litter
pocket litter
prelitter
rough-backed litter snake
runt of the litter
southern litter skink
litterer
littering
Translations:
lang: Belarusian
word: по́дсціл
roman: pódscil
lang: Belarusian
word: по́дсьціл
roman: pódsʹcil
lang: Bulgarian
word: постеля
roman: postelja
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 垫料
lang: Dutch
word: strooisel
lang: Finnish
word: kuivike
lang: French
word: litière
lang: Galician
word: estrume
lang: Galician
word: valume
lang: Galician
word: louza
lang: Galician
word: mulime
lang: German
word: Streu
lang: German
word: Stroh
lang: Hungarian
word: alom
lang: Italian
word: lettiera
lang: Polish
word: ściółka
lang: Russian
word: подсти́лка
roman: podstílka
lang: Spanish
word: cama
lang: Spanish
word: lecho
lang: Swedish
word: strö
lang: Turkish
word: altlık
lang: Ukrainian
word: підсти́лка
roman: pidstýlka
lang: Ukrainian
word: пости́лка
roman: postýlka
lang: Welsh
word: gwasarn
lang: Welsh
word: llaesodr
lang: Welsh
word: llaesod
lang: Belarusian
word: сме́цце
roman: smjéccje
lang: Belarusian
word: смяццё
roman: smjaccjó
lang: Belarusian
word: сьмяцьцё
roman: sʹmjacʹcjó
lang: Bulgarian
word: боклу́к
roman: boklúk
lang: Catalan
word: escombraries
lang: Catalan
word: deixalles
lang: Catalan
word: brossa
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 垃圾
roman: lājī, lèsè
lang: Dutch
word: afval
lang: Dutch
word: zwerfafval
lang: Dutch
word: vuil
lang: Dutch
word: zwerfvuil
lang: Dutch
word: vuilnis
lang: Finnish
word: roska
lang: Finnish
word: roina
lang: French
word: détritus
lang: Galician
word: estrumeira
lang: Galician
word: lixo
lang: German
word: Abfall
lang: German
word: Unrat
lang: German
word: Müll
lang: German
word: Abfälle
lang: Hungarian
word: hulladék
lang: Hungarian
word: szemét
lang: Icelandic
word: rusl
lang: Icelandic
word: drasl
lang: Ingrian
word: rikka
lang: Ingrian
word: roska
lang: Ingrian
word: moška
lang: Italian
word: rifiuti
lang: Italian
word: immondizia
lang: Italian
word: spazzatura
lang: Japanese
word: ごみ
roman: gomi
lang: Kazakh
word: қоқыс
roman: qoqys
lang: Lithuanian
word: šiukšlės
lang: Lithuanian
word: pabiros
lang: Macedonian
word: ѓу́бре
roman: ǵúbre
lang: Macedonian
word: о́тпадок
roman: ótpadok
lang: Malayalam
word: ചവറ്
roman: cavaṟŭ
lang: Māori
word: parahanga
lang: Polish
word: śmieci
lang: Portuguese
word: lixo
lang: Russian
word: сор
roman: sor
lang: Russian
word: му́сор
roman: músor
lang: Spanish
word: detritus
lang: Spanish
word: basura
lang: Spanish
word: basuraleza
lang: Swedish
word: skräp
lang: Swedish
word: avfall
lang: Swedish
word: sopor
lang: Ukrainian
word: сміття́
roman: smittjá
lang: Ukrainian
word: смі́ття
roman: smíttja
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 枯枝落叶层
roman: kūzhīluòyècéng
lang: Czech
word: mrť
lang: Estonian
word: varis
lang: Finnish
word: karike
lang: French
word: litière
lang: Galician
word: frouma
lang: Galician
word: batume
lang: Galician
word: fronza
lang: Galician
word: mulime
lang: Galician
word: estrume
lang: German
word: Streu
lang: German
word: Bodenstreu
lang: Polish
word: ściółka
lang: Spanish
word: colchón de hojas
lang: Swedish
word: lövtäcke
lang: Swedish
word: fjolårslöv
lang: Finnish
word: kuivike
lang: French
word: litière
lang: Galician
word: estrume
lang: German
word: Streu
lang: German
word: Einstreu
lang: Hungarian
word: alom
lang: Italian
word: lettiera
lang: Polish
word: ściółka
lang: Polish
word: żwirek
lang: Russian
word: подсти́лка
roman: podstílka
lang: Spanish
word: lecho
lang: Swedish
word: strö