Refuse vs Litter - What's the difference?
refuse | litter |
(UK) Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.
To decline (a request or demand).
* Bible, Isa. i. 20
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=September 27
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City
, work=BBC Sport
To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
(military) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.
(obsolete) To disown.
* Shakespeare
(countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
* Shakespeare
(countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
* D. Estrange
(uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.
(uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
* Jonathan Swift
(uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
(uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
A covering of straw for plants.
* Evelyn
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 strew with scattered articles.
* Jonathan Swift
To give birth to, used of animals.
* Sir Thomas Browne
* Shakespeare
To produce a litter of young.
* Macaulay
To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
* Bishop Hacke
* Dryden
To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
* Habington
As verbs the difference between refuse and litter
is that refuse is while litter is to drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).As a noun litter is
(countable) a platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.refuse
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Noun
(-)Synonyms
* discards * garbage (US ) * rubbish (UK ) * trash (US ) * See alsoEtymology 2
From (etyl) refuser, from .Verb
(refus)- My request for a pay rise was refused .
- I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.
- If ye refuse ye shall be devoured with the sword.
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- I asked the star if I could have her autograph, but she refused .
- to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks
- Refuse thy name.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (decline) decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake * (decline a request or demand) say no, forbearlitter
English
Noun
(wikipedia litter)- There is a litter ready; lay him in 't.
- A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter .
- Strephon / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.
- Take off the litter from your kernel beds.
Synonyms
* (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet * (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junkDerived terms
* cat litter * litter bin * litter bug, litterbug * litter frogVerb
(en verb)- the room with volumes littered round
- 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.
- A desert where the she-wolf still littered .
- Tell them how they litter their jades.
- For his ease, well littered was the floor.
- The inn where he and his horse littered .