rubble en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
- /ˈɹʌb.əl/
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English rouble, rubel, robel, robeil, from Anglo-Norman *robel (“bits of broken stone”). Presumably related to rubbish, originally of same meaning (waste material, bits of stone, rubble). Ultimately presumably from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", possibly also "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”), related to Proto-Germanic *reufaną (“to tear”), *raubōną (“to rob, steal, plunder”), perhaps via Old French robe (English rob (“steal”)) in sense of “plunder, destroy”; see also Middle English, Middle French -el.
Meanings
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(countable, uncountable) The broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry.
Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:The main East Coast line from Edinburgh to Berwick was blocked at Cockburnspath and Grantshouse by flood water, which washed away part of an embankment, and by the collapse of about 300 tons of rubble on to the track.
1956 October, “Summer Floods in Scotland”, in Railway Magazine, page 658:The old boulevard now was a sagging ruin, waiting for the wreckers. … You'd have to loathe yourself vividly to be indifferent to such destruction or, worse, rejoice at the crushing of the locus of these middle-class settlements, glad that history had made rubble of them.
1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 72:
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(countable, uncountable) A mass or stratum of fragments of rock lying under the alluvium and derived from the neighbouring rock.
The overlying beds are composed of such calcareous rubble and flints, rudely stratified
1855, Sir Charles Lyell, A Manual of Elementary Geology:
- (UK, countable, dialectal, in-plural, uncountable) The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rubbles | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
rubblize · rubblestone · bounce the rubble · rubble crab · bounce rubble · rubble pile · rubblization · rubblework · rubbly
Relateds
Translations (65)
ru ще́бень (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · bcl ragpa (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · it detriti (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · sw fusi (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · cmn 瓦礫 /瓦砾 (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · cs suť (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · it macerie (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ja 瓦礫 (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ota مولوز (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · be шчэ́бень (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · uk ще́бінь (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · eo rubo (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · et klibu (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · br dismantr (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · nl puin (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · fr débris (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · es escombros (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · be друз (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · be адло́мкі (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · pl rumowisko (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · es desmonte (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ar أَنْقَاض (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · et killustik (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · fr gravats (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ar رُكام (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ro moloz (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · la rūdus (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · tly گیلی (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · gl rebo (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · is rústir (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · pt escombros (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · eo ŝtonetaro (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · es escombra (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · gl entullo (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · it calcinacci (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · la strāgēs (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · be абло́мкі (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · pt entulho (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ko 파편 (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · cmn 碎石 (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · no grus (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · io exkavuro (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · fr décombres (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · bo རྡོ་ཧྲུག (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · hu sitt (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · hu törmelék (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · uk ула́мки (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · de Schutt (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ms puing (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ru обло́мки (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · lt griuvėsiai (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · gl rello (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · fi rauniot (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · tr moloz (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · gl reblo (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · et kiviprügi (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ro dărâmătură (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ca reble (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · gl cascabullo (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · ko 와력 (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · id puing (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · sv bråte (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · io eskombro (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · eu zabor (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry) · bg отло́мки (the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry)