RUBBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rubble mean? 

• RUBBLE (noun)
  The noun RUBBLE has 1 sense:

1. the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up

  Familiarity information: RUBBLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUBBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

debris; detritus; dust; junk; rubble

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

rubbish; scrap; trash (worthless material that is to be disposed of)

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

slack (dust consisting of a mixture of small coal fragments and coal dust and dirt that sifts out when coal is passed over a sieve)

 Context examples 

The asteroid appears to have a structure perhaps resembling a pile of rocks, or a "rubble pile."

(NASA announces latest progress in hunt for asteroids, NASA)

Presently this incline became even steeper, and we found ourselves climbing upon hands and knees among loose rubble which slid from beneath us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The wall carries rocks, mud, and rubble and can sweep away most things in its path.

(Floods, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

But there is a bunch of oxygen: The lunar regolith - the crumbly top layer of dirt and rubble on the Moon's surface - is loaded with it.

(Scientists Find Way to Extract Oxygen from Moon Dirt, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

FINDER has previously demonstrated capabilities of detect people buried under up to 30 feet of rubble, hidden behind 20 feet of solid concrete, and from a distant of 100 feet in open spaces.

(DHS and NASA Technology Helps Save Four in Nepal Earthquake Disaster, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Or maybe it is the other way around – that is, a single comet could be tugged into a curious shape by the strong gravitational pull of a large object like Jupiter or the Sun; after all, comets are rubble piles with weak internal strength as directly witnessed in the fragmentation of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the subsequent impacts into Jupiter, 20 years ago this week.

(Rosetta Comet May Be a Contact Binary, NASA)

A new locator feature has since been added to not only provide search and rescue responders with confirmation of a heartbeat, but also the approximate location of trapped individuals within about five feet, depending on the type of rubble.

(DHS and NASA Technology Helps Save Four in Nepal Earthquake Disaster, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)