litter Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the offspring at one birth of a multiparous mammal
  2. noun rubbish carelessly dropped or left about (especially in public places)
  3. noun conveyance consisting of a chair or bed carried on two poles by bearers
  4. noun material used to provide a bed for animals
    bedding; bedding material.
  5. verb strew
    • Cigar butts littered the ground
  6. verb make a place messy by strewing garbage around
  7. verb give birth to a litter of animals

WordNet

Lit"ter noun
Etymology
F. litière, LL. lectaria, fr. L. lectus couch, bed. See Lie to be prostrated, and cf. Coverlet.
Definitions
  1. A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it.
    There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. Shak.
  2. Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants.
    To crouch in litter of your stable planks. Shak.
    Take off the litter from your kernel beds. Evelyn.
  3. Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish.
    Strephon, who found the room was void. Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay. Swift.
  4. Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for; as, a room in a state of litter.
  5. The young brought forth at one time, by a sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig.
    A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter. D. Estrange.
    Reflect upon numerous litter of strange, senseless opinions that crawl about the world. South.
Lit"ter transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Littered ; present participle & verbal noun Littering
Definitions
  1. To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
    Tell them how they litter their jades. Bp. Hacke.
    For his ease, well littered was the floor. Dryden.
  2. To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles; as, to litter a room.
    The room with volumes littered round. Swift.
  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.
    We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. Sir T. Browne.
    The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn. Shak.
Lit"ter intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter. R.
    The inn Where he and his horse littered. Habington.
  2. To produce a litter.
    A desert . . . where the she-wolf still littered. Macaulay.

Webster 1913