Rubble

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: rub=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

Rubble, n. [From an assumed Old French dim. of robe See Rubbish.].

•  Water-worn or rough broken stones; broken bricks, etc., used in coarse masonry, or to fill up between the facing courses of walls.  [1913 Webster]

  "Inside [the wall] there was rubble or mortar."  [1913 Webster]
•  Rough stone as it comes from the quarry; also, a quarryman's term for the upper fragmentary and decomposed portion of a mass of stone; brash.  Brande & C.  [1913 Webster]
•  A mass or stratum of fragments or rock lying under the alluvium, and derived from the neighboring rock.  Lyell.  [1913 Webster]
•  The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.  Simmonds.  [1913 Webster]

Coursed rubble, rubble masonry in which courses are formed by leveling off the work at certain heights.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Rubble, n.
1 waste or rough fragments of stone or brick etc.
2 pieces of undressed stone used, esp. as filling-in, for walls.
3 Geol. loose angular stones etc. as the covering of some rocks.
4 water-worn stones.

Derivative

rubbly adj.

Etymology

ME robyl, rubel, of uncert. orig.: cf. OF robe spoils

THESAURUS

Rubble

aa, abyssal rock, basalt, bedrock, block lava, brash, breccia, clamjamfry, conglomerate, crag, debris, druid stone, dust, festooned pahoehoe, gneiss, granite, igneous rock, junk, lava, limestone, litter, living rock, lumber, magma, mantlerock, metamorphic rock, monolith, pahoehoe, pillow lava, porphyry, pudding stone, raff, regolith, riffraff, rock, ropy lava, rubbish, rubblestone, sandstone, sarsen, schist, scoria, scrap, scree, sedimentary rock, shelly pahoehoe, shoddy, stone, talus, trash, truck, tufa, tuff

ROGET THESAURUS

Rubble

Inutility

N inutility, uselessness, inefficacy, futility, ineptitude, inaptitude, unsubservience, inadequacy, inefficiency, unskillfulness, disservice, unfruitfulness (unproductiveness), labor in vain, labor lost, labor of Sisyphus, lost trouble, lost labor, work of Penelope, sleeveless errand, wild goose chase, mere farce, tautology, supererogation, vanitas vanitatum, vanity, inanity, worthlessness, nugacity, triviality, caput mortuum, waste paper, dead letter, blunt tool, litter, rubbish, junk, lumber, odds and ends, cast-off clothes, button top, shoddy, rags, orts, trash, refuse, sweepings, scourings, offscourings, waste, rubble, debris, detritus, stubble, leavings, broken meat, dregs, weeds, tares, rubbish heap, dust hole, rudera, deads, fruges consumere natus, useless, inutile, inefficacious, futile, unavailing, bootless, inoperative, inadequate, inservient, unsubservient, inept, inefficient, of no avail, ineffectual, incompetent, stale, flat and unprofitable, superfluous, dispensable, thrown away, abortive, worthless, valueless, priceless, unsalable, not worth a straw, dear at any price, vain, empty, inane, gainless, profitless, fruitless, unserviceable, unprofitable, ill-spent, unproductive, hors de combat, effete, past work, obsolete, fit for the dust hole, good for nothing, of no earthly use, not worth having, not worth powder and shot, leading to no end, uncalled for, unnecessary, unneeded, uselessly, to little purpose, to no purpose, to little or no purpose, Int, cui bono?, what's the good!, actum ne agas, chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin, tanto buon che val niente.