litter

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

• noun Carelessly discarded refuse, such as wastepaper.
• noun A disorderly accumulation of objects; a pile.
• noun The group of offspring produced at one birth by a mammal.
• noun Material, such as straw, used as bedding for animals.
• noun An absorbent material, such as granulated clay, for covering the floor of an animal's cage or excretory box.
• noun An enclosed or curtained couch mounted on shafts and used to carry a single passenger.
• noun A flat supporting framework, such as a piece of canvas stretched between parallel shafts, for carrying a disabled or dead person; a stretcher.
• noun Fallen leaves and other decaying organic matter that make up the top layer of a forest floor.
• intransitive verb To give birth to (a litter).
• intransitive verb To make untidy by discarding rubbish carelessly.
• intransitive verb To scatter about.
• intransitive verb To be scattered about (an area).
• intransitive verb To include certain items such as expressions throughout (a speech or piece of writing, for example).
• intransitive verb Archaic To supply (animals) with litter for bedding or floor covering.
• intransitive verb To give birth to a litter.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A vehicle consisting of a bed or couch suspended between shafts, and borne by men or horses.
• noun A form of hurdle-bed on which a sick or wounded person is conveyed from one point to another, as to a hospital in a city, or to a field-hospital on a battle-field.
• noun A birth or bringing forth of more than one young animal at a time, as of pigs, kittens, rabbits, puppies, etc.
• noun A number of young animals brought forth at a birth: used with reference to mammals which regularly give birth to more than one young at once, as the sow, bitch, eat, rabbit, etc., and only slightingly of human beings.
• noun Loose straw, hay, or the like, spread on a floor or the ground as bedding for horses, cows, or other animals.
• noun Waste matter, as shreds, fragments, or the like, scattered about, as on a floor; scattered rubbish; things strewn about in a careless or slovenly manner; clutter.
• noun A condition of disorder or confusion: as, the room is in a litter.
• noun In forestry, the rubbish of dead leaves and twigs scattered upon the floor of the forest.
• To carry in a litter.
• To scatter straw, hay, or other similar substance on or over for bedding.
• To spread a bed for; supply with litter: usually with down.
• To make litter of; use for litter.
• To bring forth; give birth to: said of mammals which usually produce a number at a birth, as the sow, cat, rabbit, bitch, etc., or slightingly of human beings.
• To scatter things over or about in a careless or slovenly manner.
• To be supplied with a bed or litter for bedding; sleep in litter: as, to litter in the straw.
• To bring forth a litter of young animals.

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

• intransitive verb rare To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
• intransitive verb To produce a litter.
• noun A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it.
• noun Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants.
• noun Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish.
• noun Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for.
• noun The young brought forth at one time, by a cat, dog, sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig.
• transitive verb To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
• transitive verb To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles.
• transitive verb To give birth to; to bear; -- said of brutes, esp. those which produce more than one at a birth, and also of human beings, in abhorrence or contempt.

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

• noun 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.
• noun countable The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
• noun uncountable Material used as bedding for animals.
• noun uncountable Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
• noun uncountable Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
• noun uncountable Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
• verb intransitive To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).