Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Litter?

\Lit"ter\, n. [F. liti[`e]re, LL. lectaria, fr. L. lectus couch, bed. See {Lie} to be prostrated, and cf. {Coverlet}.] 1. A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it. There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. --Shak. 2. Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants. To crouch in litter of your stable planks. --Shak. Take off the litter from your kernel beds. --Evelyn. 3. Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish. Strephon, who found the room was void. Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay. --Swift. 4. Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for; as, a room in a state of litter. 5. The young brought forth at one time, by a sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig. A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter. --D. Estrange. Reflect upon numerous litter of strange, senseless opinions that crawl about the world. --South.
\Lit"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Littered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Littering}.] 1. To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall. Tell them how they litter their jades. --Bp. Hacke?. For his ease, well littered was the floor. --Dryden. 2. To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles; as, to litter a room. The room with volumes littered round. --Swift. 3. To give birth to; to bear; -- said of brutes, esp. those which produce more than one at a birth, and also of human beings, in abhorrence or contempt. We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. --Sir T. Browne. The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn. --Shak.
\Lit"ter\, v. i. 1. To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter. [R.] The inn Where he and his horse littered. --Habington. 2. To produce a litter. A desert . . . where the she-wolf still littered. --Macaulay.