Debris

Definitions

1. Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
   uncountable
2. Dated spelling of debris.
   countable, uncountable
3. Litter and discarded refuse.
   uncountable
4. The ruins of a broken-down structure.
   uncountable
5. Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
   uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“His neighbors were still ripping out debris. But Mr. Ryan, a retired bricklayer who built his house by hand 30 years ago only to lose⟳ most of it to Hurricane Sandy, was already hard at work⟳ rebuilding.”

“But signalman Bridges was never to answer⟳ driver Gimbert's desperate question⟳. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like⟳ simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have⟳ been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.”

“[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain⟳ bacteria, […].”

“The gorge widens out slightly after leaving Pa-tung, giving room for piles of gigantic débris from the neighbouring mountains to obstruct the river and create⟳ numerous small rapids, which we surmount in the usual painful manner. The country is wild and desolate-looking in the extreme, and well explains the poverty of the Pa-tung district.”

CEFR level