discard
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to get rid of something because it is no longer useful or wanted.
v.to dispose of or reject something as no longer useful or desirable. Transitive — requires a direct object.
Simple“Please discard any old food from the fridge before you leave for vacation.”
In context“The manufacturer decided to discard the faulty components rather than attempting a costly repair that might compromise safety standards.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to get rid of a card from your hand that you do not want.
v.to play or lay aside a card from one's hand. Often used intransitively in gaming contexts.
Simple“On your turn, you must draw one card and then discard another.”
In context“The professional player chose to discard the king, a tactical move that confused his opponents and protected his remaining high-value cards.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
n.something that has been thrown away or rejected.
n.an item, person, or idea that has been cast aside or rejected as useless.
Simple“The designer looked through the discards to see if any fabric could be reused.”
In context“The pile of industrial discards behind the factory became a source of raw materials for local sculptors and hobbyists.”
- 04 C1 Advanced
n.a temporary variable used to hold a value that the program will not use later.
n.a dummy variable or placeholder used to receive a return value that is intentionally ignored by the application logic.
Simple“The programmer used an underscore as a discard for the second value in the list.”
In context“By using a discard for the unwanted output parameters, the developer kept the function call clean and improved the overall readability of the code.”
Synonymsplaceholderdummy variable
“Previous research has succeeded in isolating cell nuclei from FFPE samples, but much information is lost—particularly RNA—when the rest of the cell is discarded.”
“In the hospital, she finds that she and her fellow child inmates are the object of obsessive study in turn by their doctors – sometimes understood, sometimes valued, and then, tragically, sometimes discarded.”
From dis- + card. Compare Spanish descartar.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.