litter

• liter, litere, lytter, lyttre, littor, littour, litre, licter, letter, lictier, licture, litour, littier, littre (obsolete)

From Middle English litere, lytere, &c., from Anglo-Norman litere, litiere, &c., from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria (“bedding; blankets”), from Latin lectus (“bed; couch”) + -āria (“forming related nouns”), from Proto-Italic *lektos (“[thing] lain upon”), from *leɣō (“to lie down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognate with French lit and litière.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪtə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪtɚ/, [ˈlɪɾɚ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: lidder (US)
• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)

litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)

1. (uncountable) Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals. [1325]
   • a. 1325, Cursor Mundi (Vespasian MS), lines 13817–8:

     Quen he had made me hale and fere
     Rise vp he said wit þi litere.

   • c. 1430, John Lydgate, Horse, Goose, and Sheep:

     As pelows ben to chambres agreable
     So is harde strawe lytter for the stable.

   • 1693, Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, translated by John Evelyn, The Compleat Gard'ner..., page 54:

     To place daily under those Animals... a sufficient quantity of fresh New Straw, well spread, which is call'd making of Litter.

   • 1774, Joseph Collyer, The History of England..., volume II, page 126:

     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.

   • 1862, Albert Henry Wratislaw, Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz..., Book II, p. 59:

     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.

2. (countable, obsolete) A bed, especially a pile of straw with blankets &c. used as a bed.
   • 1440, John Shirley, The Full Lamentable Cronycle of the Dethe and False Murdure of James Stewarde..., page 17:

     The traitours sought the Kyng... yn the withdrawyng chaumburs, yn the litters, undir the presses.

   • 1481, The Historye of Reynart the Foxe, William Caxton, page 57:

     Tho laye they doun on a lytier made of strawe, the foxe, hys wyf and hys chyldren wente alle to slepe.

3. (countable) A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs. [1330s]
   • 1410s, John Lydgate, Troy Book, Canto II:

     ... In a lytter made tho full royall...
     To cary hym softe and easyly...

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:

     Glou. There is a Litter ready, lay him in't,
     And driue toward Douer friend...

   1. (medicine, countable) Synonym of stretcher, such a vehicle used for transporting the sick and injured, inclusive of designs carried in the hand.
      • c. 1480, Thomas Malory, chapter XIX, in Morte d'Arthur:

        He ordeyned lyttyers for the wounded knyghtes.

   2. (countable, broadly) The general category of all such similar vehicles, inclusive of sedan chairs, hammock litters, and the like.
      • 1922, Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization‎^[1], page 219:

        When they went out, they sat in litters, which were curtained.

      • 1942 March, “Notes and News: Monument to a Stillborn Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:

        "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.

4. (countable, obsolete) An act of giving birth to a number of live young at the same time. [1440]
5. (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of straw, grass, &c. more generally, particularly in plaster, thatch, and mulch. [1453]
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “. Chapter IV. Of the Elm.”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 19:

     Let new planted Elms be kept moist by frequent refreſhings upon ſome half-rotten Fern, or Litter laid about the foot of the ſtem...

6. (countable) The whole group of live young born at the same time, typically in reference to mammals or (figurative, derogatory) unpleasant people or objects. [1486]
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     A Wolf came to a Sow, and very Kindly Offer'd to take care of her Litter.

   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species..., p. 10:

     Strongly-marked differences occasionally appear in the young of the same litter.

   • 1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, volume I, page 137:

     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.

7. (uncountable) Waste or debris, originally any mess but now particularly trash left or thrown on the ground.

   What are you doing?! There's a litter bin not three feet away.

   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, The Lady's Dressing Room:

     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....

   • 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 254:

     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.

   • 2023, Charles Chao Rong Phua, Policy Strategy and Innovation Primer..., p. 22:

     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.

8. (uncountable) Animal bedding together with its dung.
   • 1835, Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures, page 232:

     Silkworms... must be well cleansed from the litter.

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England..., volume I, page 320:

     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.

9. (countable, uncommon) A bed, a substrate formed from loose materials.
   • 1848, Friedrich Ludwig Knapp, translated by Edmund Ronalds et al., Chemical Technology, volume I, page 35:

     Having first made a litter of shingles, planks or billets, with a layer of charcoal powder several inches in thickness...

10. (uncountable) The layer of fallen leaves and other loose organic material on the ground in a forest. [1905]
    • 1905, "Terms Used in Forestry and Logging", Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Forestry, No. 61, p. 14:

      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.

11. (uncountable) Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals. [1959]

    Change the cat litter fer chrissakes. This place reeks.

• (wheelless human or animal transport): palanquin, lectica (inexact); dooly, nalki (Indian, inexact, archaic)
• (waste strewn about): See Thesaurus:trash

• (wheelless human or animal transport): sedan, sedan chair (borne chairs); horse litter, mule litter (animal-borne litters); palanquin, palki, jaun (Indian litters); meeana (palanquin with open sides); hammock litter; mancheel (Indian hammock litter); gestatorial chair (papal sedan chair); andor (litter used for Portuguese Catholic processions); takhtrawan (enclosed Middle Eastern & Indian animal-borne litters or open Persian & Indian human-borne mobile thrones); chowpaul (open Indian litter with arched support pole); nalki (princely Indian litter borne by many men; a groom's litter); dooly (suspended Indian litter or seat); dandy, andor (open suspended Indian sedan chair); tonjon (open elevated Indian sedan chair); kajawah (Persian & Indian camel-borne litters); mihaffa (Middle Eastern, Central Asian, & Indian covered litters); jampan (Malaysian covered litter); cacolet (animal-borne medical litters); lectica (Roman curtained litter); kago (open Japanese sedan chair); norimono (enclosed Japanese palanquin); mikoshi (ceremonial Japanese litter for Shinto idols)

litter (third-person singular simple present litters, present participle littering, simple past and past participle littered)

1. (intransitive) 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.

2. (transitive) To scatter carelessly about.
3. (transitive) To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
   • 1726, [Jonathan Swift], Cadenus and Vanessa. A Poem, London: […] J. Roberts […], →OCLC, page 18:

     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; [...]

4. (transitive) To give birth to, in the manner of animals.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     The son that she did litter here, / A freckled whelp hagborn.

5. (intransitive) To produce a litter of young.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A desert […] where the she-wolf still littered.

6. (transitive) To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
   • 1693, John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams:

     Tell them how they litter their jades.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     For his ease, well litter'd was the floor.

7. (intransitive) To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
   • 1634, William Habington, Castara:

     The inn where he and his horse litter'd.

• litterer
• littering

litter

1. comparative form of lit: more lit

• “litter, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• retilt, tilter, titler

From Old French liter, luitier, from Latin luctārī. Compare French lutter.

litter

1. (Jersey) to wrestle

• litteux (“wrestler”)