DISCARD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does discard mean? 

• DISCARD (noun)
  The noun DISCARD has 3 senses:

1. anything that is cast aside or discarded

2. (cards) the act of throwing out a useless card or of failing to follow suit

3. getting rid something that is regarded as useless or undesirable

  Familiarity information: DISCARD used as a noun is uncommon.

• DISCARD (verb)
  The verb DISCARD has 1 sense:

1. throw or cast away

  Familiarity information: DISCARD used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCARD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Anything that is cast aside or discarded

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("discard" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Derivation:

discard (throw or cast away)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(cards) the act of throwing out a useless card or of failing to follow suit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("discard" is a kind of...):

abandonment (the voluntary surrender of property (or a right to property) without attempting to reclaim it or give it away)

Domain category:

card game; cards (a game played with playing cards)

Holonyms ("discard" is a part of...):

card game; cards (a game played with playing cards)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Getting rid something that is regarded as useless or undesirable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

discard; throwing away

Hypernyms ("discard" is a kind of...):

abandonment (the voluntary surrender of property (or a right to property) without attempting to reclaim it or give it away)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "discard"):

staging (getting rid of a stage of a multistage rocket)

Derivation:

discard (throw or cast away)

• DISCARD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they discard    ... he / she / it discards   
Past simple: discarded   
Past participle: discarded   
-ing form: discarding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Throw or cast away

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

cast aside; cast away; cast out; chuck out; discard; dispose; fling; put away; throw away; throw out; toss; toss away; toss out

Context example:

Put away your worries

Hypernyms (to "discard" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discard"):

unlearn (discard something previously learnt, like an old habit)

deep-six; give it the deep six (toss out; get rid of)

jettison (throw away, of something encumbering)

junk; scrap; trash (dispose of (something useless or old))

waste (get rid of)

dump (throw away as refuse)

retire (dispose of (something no longer useful or needed))

abandon (forsake, leave behind)

liquidize; sell out; sell up (sell or get rid of all one's merchandise)

de-access (dispose of by selling)

close out (terminate by selling off or disposing of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

discard (getting rid something that is regarded as useless or undesirable)

discard (anything that is cast aside or discarded)

 Context examples 

It lets your brain hold onto information as you’re using it, then discard it if it’s no longer needed or store it in your long-term memory.

(Recalling temporary memories, NIH)

This includes an estimated half-a-million marble-sized pieces of junk, while other items, such as discarded rockets and disused parts of space crafts, are much larger.

(Australia Developing Lasers to Track, Destroy Space Junk, VOA)

While tiny fragments of plastic are the most numerous, nearly half of the weight of rubbish is composed of discarded fishing nets.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

About two-thirds of this total — 6.3 billion tonnes — has been discarded as waste, while 2.6 billion tonnes is still in use, according to a study published in 2017 in Science Advances.

(Scientists develop biodegradable plastic from cassava starch, SciDev.Net)

Ethnic origin has become a popular classification in statistics, where the concept of race has been largely discarded.

(Ethnic Origin, NCI Thesaurus)

Everywhere was a thick litter of discarded and ragged garments, old sea-boots, leaky oilskins—all the worthless forecastle dunnage of a long voyage.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The tent they had discarded at Dyea in order to travel light.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He slunk forlornly through the deserted camp, smelling the rubbish-heaps and the discarded rags and tags of the gods.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Watermelon rind, usually discarded as waste, has been shown by researchers in Pakistan to be capable of cheaply and efficiently removing arsenic from groundwater.

(Watermelon rind a cheap filter for arsenic in groundwater, SciDev.Net)

The plastic pellets, often derived from synthetic clothing, vehicle tyres, bags, cups and other discarded waste, are commonly found on beaches and in oceans around the world.

(Microplastic pollution adds to oceans’ problems, scidev.net)