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Debris vs Junk - What's the difference?

debris | junk |

As nouns the difference between debris and junk

is that debris is rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed while junk is discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.

As a verb junk is

to throw away.

debris

English

Alternative forms

*

Noun

(-)
  • Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=December 21, author=David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli and Sarah Maslin Nir, title=On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=His neighbors were still ripping out debris . But Mr. Ryan, a retired bricklayer who built his house by hand 30 years ago only to lose most of it to Hurricane Sandy, was already hard at work rebuilding. }}
  • Litter and discarded refuse.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • The ruins of a broken-down structure
  • (geology) Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
  • Anagrams

    *

    junk

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (EtymOnLine).

    Noun

    (-)
  • Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.}}
  • A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
  • (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
  • * 1961 , William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine , page 7
  • Trace a line of goose pimples up the thin young arm. Slide the needle in and push the bulb watching the junk' hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suck ' junk through all the hungry young cells.
  • (slang) Genitalia.
  • * 2009 , (Kesha), (Tik Tok)
  • I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
    Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk
    Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk
  • (nautical) Salt beef.
  • Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.
  • (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
  • (Lowell)
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * junk bond * junk bottle * junk DNA * junk drawer * junk food * junk hook * junkie * junk mail * junk ring * junkroom * junk science * junkshop * junk vat * junk wad * junkyard

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To throw away.
  • Synonyms
    * (throw away) bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away, throw out, toss, trash * See also

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) junco, from (etyl) djong (Malay (adjong)).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.
  • References