ENGLISH
REFERENCE

discard

v.
C1 Advanced Oxford US //dɪˈskɑɹd// dis·card

v. to get rid of something that you no longer want or need. You use this when you throw away an item or delete a piece of data.

v. to get rid of something as no longer useful or desirable. Often used in technical contexts to describe the removal of data or objects from memory.


SIMPLE

Please discard any old files you no longer need.

CONTEXTUAL

The system will automatically discard any incoming packets that do not match the security criteria.

COMPLEX

In high-performance computing, the ability to efficiently discard redundant data points is just as critical as the ability to process relevant ones, as it prevents memory overflow.

Synonyms
Origin

From dis- + card. Compare Spanish descartar.

Usage

The verb is transitive and requires a direct object.

Pitfall

discard of the old clothesdiscard the old clothesDiscard is a transitive verb and does not take the preposition 'of', unlike the verb 'dispose'.

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