trashing

Pluraltrashings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of trash.

   The mob spent the night trashing storefronts along the avenue.

   Critics accused the columnist of trashing every rival without offering evidence.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs. In "they were trashing the place" it is the verb in progress; in "trashing rivals is easy" it names the activity as a gerund. Behind it stand American verbs for discarding, wrecking and beating soundly in a game, the transitive sense of spurning or disrespecting, and rarer ones meaning to lop or crop, or to hold back a dog on a leash. Once it takes a plural, it has become the noun for a wrecking.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of destroying, wrecking, or ruining something.

   The trashing of the locker room cost the team a hefty fine.

   Neighbors blamed the late-night trashing of the park on a group of teenagers.

   Similardestruction, wrecking, vandalism

   Note

   Wrecking with words counts too. In Gary A. Olson and Elizabeth Hirsh's Women Writing Culture (1995), a critic's attack on a body of work is one of its "most recent trashings", while the "cinema trashings" of 2001 are attacks on cinemas themselves. The noun counts freely, as in a trashing or repeated trashings, and an of-phrase names the victim: the trashing of a reputation, the trashing of a room.

3. 3
   nounUSuncountable

   The practice of searching through dumpsters and discarded trash for usable food or items.

   A few students survived on trashing, salvaging bread and vegetables from bakery bins.

   Trashing has become popular among people trying to cut down on waste.

   Similarscavenging

   Note

   An American name for salvaging from bins, and one that can mislead. Out of context, a trashing sounds like an act of wrecking, so the word is clearest as a mass noun for the practice, as in living on trashing or taking up trashing. When there is any risk of confusion, Dumpster diving is the plainer equivalent.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A tradition in which students are doused with food, confetti, and similar things after finishing their final examinations.

   She arrived at the trashing in old clothes, expecting to be covered in champagne and glitter.

   The trashing turned the courtyard into a sticky carpet of confetti and spilled drinks.

   Note

   Oxford's own use, where the word names an occasion rather than damage. Friends gather to throw food and confetti over a student who has just finished final examinations. It counts as an event, so you can say she had her trashing. Outside Oxford the word is likely to be heard as the wrecking sense, so it usually needs a word of explanation.

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