littered

1. 1
   adjective

   Covered with litter, especially trash that has been carelessly thrown down or left lying about.

   The littered roadside stretched for miles past the abandoned rest stop.

   Volunteers spent the weekend restoring the littered riverbank to its former state.

   Similarcluttered, messy, untidy, dirty

   Oppositeclean, tidy, pristine

   Note

   A participle turned adjective that takes degrees: one beach can be more littered than another, and a survey can rank the most littered streets in a city. It compares with more and most rather than adding an ending. Before a noun it needs no help, as in a littered roadside or a littered riverbank.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of litter.

   Storms littered the coastline with driftwood and tangled seaweed.

   By midnight the revelers had littered every corner of the plaza.

   Note

   One form does every past job for the verb: storms littered the beach, and the beach has been littered with driftwood. It carries all of the verb's meanings, not only the trash ones. A farmer has littered a stall with straw, and a sow has littered, meaning she has given birth. When the participle describes a lasting state, it shades into the adjective "strewn with litter".

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