litters

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of litter.

   The breeder kept careful records of all her litters over the years.

   Servants carried the nobles through the city in ornate litters.

   Note

   The plural works only for the countable meanings of litter. Litter as straw or loose bedding is uncountable, so a stall gets more litter, never more litters. The plural belongs to the carried couches, stretchers and sedan-style vehicles. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so in a phrase like "the sow litters" only the grammar around the word shows which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of litter.

   Whenever the cat litters, she hides her newborns in the closet.

   The construction crew routinely litters the lot with broken pallets.

   Note

   Here the -s marks a singular subject in the present, and it covers verbs with quite different habits. Some meanings take an object, as in "the wind litters the yard with leaves." Others stand alone, as in "he litters" or "the cat litters." Without context, the intransitive birth meaning and the trash-dropping meaning look identical, so the subject usually decides which is meant.

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