Detritus
noun
Waste or debris from any source.
She swept up the detritus left in the city after the festival
Often appears as...
- sweep up detritus
- piles of detritus
noun
Bits of decaying organic matter.
The lake was filled with detritus, such as fallen leaves and dead insects.
Often appears as...
- stream of detritus
- decaying detritus
Usage tips
Technical
noun
Tiny pieces of rock or mineral left from a larger rock formation.
The geologist studied the detritus at the foot of the cliff to learn more about the rock layers above.
Often appears as...
- layers of detritus
- detritus rock
Usage tips
Technical
noun
Waste or debris from any source.
She swept up the detritus left in the city after the festival
Often appears as...
- sweep up detritus
- piles of detritus
noun
Bits of decaying organic matter.
The lake was filled with detritus, such as fallen leaves and dead insects.
Often appears as...
- stream of detritus
- decaying detritus
Usage tips
Technical
noun
Tiny pieces of rock or mineral left from a larger rock formation.
The geologist studied the detritus at the foot of the cliff to learn more about the rock layers above.
Often appears as...
- layers of detritus
- detritus rock
Usage tips
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Visual Imagery
Imagine scattered objects after events to grasp 'detritus' in everyday use.
Post-concert, the ground was covered in detritus.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Trash
'Detritus' can be waste but also non-trash items left behind.
Lost items formed piles of detritus in the lost and found.
Pro Tip 3/3Event Aftermath
Use 'detritus' to describe leftovers from large public or private gatherings.
The wedding ended, leaving a detritus of balloons and streamers.
Pro Tip 1/3Visual Imagery
Imagine scattered objects after events to grasp 'detritus' in everyday use.
Post-concert, the ground was covered in detritus.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Trash
'Detritus' can be waste but also non-trash items left behind.
Lost items formed piles of detritus in the lost and found.
Pro Tip 3/3Event Aftermath
Use 'detritus' to describe leftovers from large public or private gatherings.
The wedding ended, leaving a detritus of balloons and streamers.
Pro Tip 1/3Visual Imagery
Imagine scattered objects after events to grasp 'detritus' in everyday use.
Post-concert, the ground was covered in detritus.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Trash
'Detritus' can be waste but also non-trash items left behind.
Lost items formed piles of detritus in the lost and found.
Pro Tip 3/3Event Aftermath
Use 'detritus' to describe leftovers from large public or private gatherings.
The wedding ended, leaving a detritus of balloons and streamers.
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Video examples
Dead stuff: The secret...
and expel digestive waste before dying and leaving their remains to decay. All that death sounds grim, right? But it's not. All detritus is ultimately consumed by microbes and other scavengers, so it actually forms the base of the brown food chain that supports many other organisms,
Video examples
Why We Need To Talk Shit...
this toilet they resort to find toilets defecating in a plastic bag and then in the morning tactfully throwing it outside when no one is looking without a sanitation network the other networks can't fully function just as the detritus of hurricane ravaged New
Video examples
Why do you get a fever...
their host’s replicative machinery to reproduce. It also protects surrounding cells from damage since some viruses spread by rupturing their host cells, which can lead to large-scale destruction, the build-up of detritus, and potentially even organ damage.
Video examples
Asha de Vos: Why you...
So clearly, whales are really important in nutrient cycling, both horizontally and vertically, through the oceans. But what's really cool is that they're also really important after they're dead. Whale carcasses are some of the largest form of detritus
Video examples
This sea creature...
In this process, sea cucumbers clean and oxygenate the seafloor by breaking down detritus and recycling nutrients. This creates the conditions for sea grass beds and shellfish to thrive. Sea cucumber excretions can also aid in coral formation
Video examples
What is dust made of? -...
This blend of chemicals, minerals, and intergalactic particles settles out of the air onto surfaces in our homes, mixing with the detritus of each house’s occupants. Stars explode, mountains erode, and buildings, plants, and animals
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 329 PIPE...
one of the most untidy spider's webs that you will find it looks like a sort of I guess derelict gypsy colony if you like it is detritus all over the place it looks like the you know the male's clearly aren't doing anything to help
Video examples
The sharks that hunt in...
Symbiotic sponges and sea squirts protect their host trees from hungry woodboring crustaceans. Crabs, snails, and shrimp eat algae, mussels, barnacles, and salty mangrove detritus. These animals in turn feed fish,
Video examples
The Strange and...
foodweb they're consuming detritus and they're gleaning essential nutrients the snail is passing calcium up through the food web and supplying it to all these animals that's how important sales are
Video examples
Sea Otters Playing with...
no matter where you go in the sea these days you tend to come across human detritus and when you because they
Video examples
Dead stuff: The secret...
and expel digestive waste before dying and leaving their remains to decay. All that death sounds grim, right? But it's not. All detritus is ultimately consumed by microbes and other scavengers, so it actually forms the base of the brown food chain that supports many other organisms,
Video examples
Why We Need To Talk Shit...
this toilet they resort to find toilets defecating in a plastic bag and then in the morning tactfully throwing it outside when no one is looking without a sanitation network the other networks can't fully function just as the detritus of hurricane ravaged New
Video examples
Why do you get a fever...
their host’s replicative machinery to reproduce. It also protects surrounding cells from damage since some viruses spread by rupturing their host cells, which can lead to large-scale destruction, the build-up of detritus, and potentially even organ damage.
Video examples
Asha de Vos: Why you...
So clearly, whales are really important in nutrient cycling, both horizontally and vertically, through the oceans. But what's really cool is that they're also really important after they're dead. Whale carcasses are some of the largest form of detritus
Video examples
This sea creature...
In this process, sea cucumbers clean and oxygenate the seafloor by breaking down detritus and recycling nutrients. This creates the conditions for sea grass beds and shellfish to thrive. Sea cucumber excretions can also aid in coral formation
Video examples
What is dust made of? -...
This blend of chemicals, minerals, and intergalactic particles settles out of the air onto surfaces in our homes, mixing with the detritus of each house’s occupants. Stars explode, mountains erode, and buildings, plants, and animals
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 329 PIPE...
one of the most untidy spider's webs that you will find it looks like a sort of I guess derelict gypsy colony if you like it is detritus all over the place it looks like the you know the male's clearly aren't doing anything to help
Video examples
The sharks that hunt in...
Symbiotic sponges and sea squirts protect their host trees from hungry woodboring crustaceans. Crabs, snails, and shrimp eat algae, mussels, barnacles, and salty mangrove detritus. These animals in turn feed fish,
Video examples
The Strange and...
foodweb they're consuming detritus and they're gleaning essential nutrients the snail is passing calcium up through the food web and supplying it to all these animals that's how important sales are
Video examples
Sea Otters Playing with...
no matter where you go in the sea these days you tend to come across human detritus and when you because they
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Stacey D'Erasmo
American Novelist
The ambition of 'Ten Thousand Saints,' Eleanor Henderson's debut novel about a group of unambitious lost souls, is beautiful. In nearly 400 pages, Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse and desire and bit of emotional detritus.
Quote examples
Jojo Moyes
British Journalist
I find my best writing time is actually 6 A.M., before the detritus of the day - the fish fingers and the school uniform and dogs and bills - have had a chance to clog up my brain. I can usually get 500 words done before 7 A.M. But it is difficult, and the Internet, and social networking, are terrible timesucks.
Quote examples
Tucker Carlson
American Journalist
Apart from its dangers, much of Iraq isn't very interesting to look at. The landscape is flat and dun colored. The dirt just beyond the highway is littered with hunks of twisted and mangled metal, some of it the detritus of wars, some of it just unclaimed junk. The countryside looks muddy and broken.
Quote examples
Paul Sparks
American Actor
The characters I've played that I like the most are people that have a lot of obstacles. They have a lot of bad things going on. They're seeking to do something good amidst all the detritus around them, and they're aware of how badly they've screwed it up. That kind of self-awareness is tragic.
Quote examples
Claire Messud
American Novelist
Things we write down are the fragments shored against our ruins. They outlast us, these scraps of words on paper. Like the detritus from the tsunami washing up on the other side of the ocean, writing is what can be salvaged.
Quote examples
Carrie Brownstein
American Musician
Only in retrospect can I find clues to my father's gayness. Sometimes the dull detritus of our pasts become glaring strands once you realize they form a pattern, a lighted path to the present.
Quote examples
Rachel Nichols
American Actress
I love to vacuum. There's just something so satisfying about hearing detritus sucked up into a vacuum. Sand makes such a great sound when being vacuumed off a hardwood floor.
Quote examples
Srikumar Rao
Indian Educator
Executives don't burn out and leave when they feel deep satisfaction. They don't create the human detritus that disgruntled managers do.
Quote examples
Stacey D'Erasmo
American Novelist
The ambition of 'Ten Thousand Saints,' Eleanor Henderson's debut novel about a group of unambitious lost souls, is beautiful. In nearly 400 pages, Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse and desire and bit of emotional detritus.
Quote examples
Jojo Moyes
British Journalist
I find my best writing time is actually 6 A.M., before the detritus of the day - the fish fingers and the school uniform and dogs and bills - have had a chance to clog up my brain. I can usually get 500 words done before 7 A.M. But it is difficult, and the Internet, and social networking, are terrible timesucks.
Quote examples
Tucker Carlson
American Journalist
Apart from its dangers, much of Iraq isn't very interesting to look at. The landscape is flat and dun colored. The dirt just beyond the highway is littered with hunks of twisted and mangled metal, some of it the detritus of wars, some of it just unclaimed junk. The countryside looks muddy and broken.
Quote examples
Paul Sparks
American Actor
The characters I've played that I like the most are people that have a lot of obstacles. They have a lot of bad things going on. They're seeking to do something good amidst all the detritus around them, and they're aware of how badly they've screwed it up. That kind of self-awareness is tragic.
Quote examples
Claire Messud
American Novelist
Things we write down are the fragments shored against our ruins. They outlast us, these scraps of words on paper. Like the detritus from the tsunami washing up on the other side of the ocean, writing is what can be salvaged.
Quote examples
Carrie Brownstein
American Musician
Only in retrospect can I find clues to my father's gayness. Sometimes the dull detritus of our pasts become glaring strands once you realize they form a pattern, a lighted path to the present.
Quote examples
Rachel Nichols
American Actress
I love to vacuum. There's just something so satisfying about hearing detritus sucked up into a vacuum. Sand makes such a great sound when being vacuumed off a hardwood floor.
Quote examples
Srikumar Rao
Indian Educator
Executives don't burn out and leave when they feel deep satisfaction. They don't create the human detritus that disgruntled managers do.
Example 1 of 8
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