Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A can or barrel for refuse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A covered receptacle for the accumulated dust, ashes, and rubbish of a dwelling, usually placed in a cellar or in a yard.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a bin that holds rubbish until it is collected.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK A bin for holding rubbish until it can be collected; a garbage can.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bin that holds rubbish until it is collected

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dust +‎ bin

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Examples

  • JW writes about subjects such as drug-addict mother, or baby abandoned in dustbin, or girl whose best friend is killed by a car, or girl whose best friend moves away, or children whose parents break up, who are fat, live in B&B accommodation, in children's homes, have multi-fathers or tattooed mothers, etc -- from the child's perception.

    Libraries Maxine 2009

  • In a few weeks, Thomas Starr King is slated for what Leon Trotsky called the dustbin of history.

    David O. Stewart: Forgetting History, California Style 2009

  • In a few weeks, Thomas Starr King is slated for what Leon Trotsky called the dustbin of history.

    David O. Stewart: Forgetting History, California Style 2009

  • In a few weeks, Thomas Starr King is slated for what Leon Trotsky called the dustbin of history.

    David O. Stewart: Forgetting History, California Style 2009

  • PS…garbage men are called dustbin men in Britain….

    u wait all day for monorail panda - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • I can rummage around in the so-called dustbin of history for aesthetic flotsam like sewing patterns, and then wear them in front of my computer.

    Again with the Summer - A Dress A Day 2007

  • I can rummage around in the so-called dustbin of history for aesthetic flotsam like sewing patterns, and then wear them in front of my computer.

    March 2007 2007

  • BLITZER: The president, a year or so ago -- almost exactly a year ago -- also warned the United Nations that if they didn't support the U.S. and take action together with the U.S., the U.N. could become part of the so-called dustbin of history -- not exactly his words.

    CNN Transcript Sep 7, 2003 2003

  • Parliament stood silent and empty on Friday afternoon, stripped of everything but government-issue furniture in preparation for its new occupant - Democratic Party leader Tony Leon. ooden desk, with inlaid fake-leather writing pad, yawned open; an unpk in one corner, and in the dustbin was a discarded folder carrying the NNP logo, a poignant symbol of the party's shattering defeat in the June 2 polls.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1999

  • Already in the dustbin are a number of Bush's executive orders respecting human life.

    RedState 2009

Comments

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  • I have always thought this sounds so much more pleasant than "garbage can."

    June 29, 2007