Dictionary-Definition.com :: Litter definition

Definition of 'litter'

noun

The offspring at one birth of a multiparous mammal

noun

Rubbish carelessly dropped or left about (especially in public places)

noun

Conveyance consisting of a chair or bed carried on two poles by bearers

noun

Material used to provide a bed for animals [syn: bedding material, bedding, litter]

verb

Strew; "Cigar butts littered the ground"

verb

Make a place messy by strewing garbage around

verb

Give birth to a litter of animals

From: GCIDE

Litter \Lit"ter\ (l[i^]t"t[~e]r), v. i.
1. To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter. [R.] [1913 Webster]
The inn Where he and his horse littered. --Habington. [1913 Webster]
2. To produce a litter. [1913 Webster]
A desert . . . where the she-wolf still littered. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Litter \Lit"ter\ (l[i^]t"t[~e]r), n. [F. liti[`e]re, LL. lectaria, fr. L. lectus couch, bed. See Lie to be prostrated, and cf. Coverlet.]
1. A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it. [1913 Webster]
There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
2. Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants. [1913 Webster]
To crouch in litter of your stable planks. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Take off the litter from your kernel beds. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]
3. Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish. [1913 Webster]
Strephon, who found the room was void. Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
4. Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for; as, a room in a state of litter. [1913 Webster]
5. The young brought forth at one time, by a cat, dog, sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig. [1913 Webster]
A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter. --D. Estrange. [1913 Webster]
Reflect upon that numerous litter of strange, senseless opinions that crawl about the world. --South. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Litter \Lit"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Littered (l[i^]t"t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Littering.]
1. To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall. [1913 Webster]
Tell them how they litter their jades. --Bp. Hackett. [1913 Webster]
For his ease, well littered was the floor. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
2. To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles; as, to litter a room. [1913 Webster]
The room with volumes littered round. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
3. 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. [1913 Webster]
We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. --Sir T. Browne. [1913 Webster]
The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Litter (Heb. tsab, as being lightly and gently borne), a sedan or palanquin for the conveyance of persons of rank (Isa. 66:20). In Num. 7:3, the words "covered wagons" are more literally "carts of the litter kind." There they denote large and commodious vehicles drawn by oxen, and fitted for transporting the furniture of the temple.