rubble

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) The broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry.
2. (countable, uncountable) A mass or stratum of fragments of rock lying under the alluvium and derived from the neighbouring rock.
3. (UK, countable, dialectal, in-plural, uncountable) The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.

Verb

To break down into rubble.

Synonyms

debris

gravel

ruins

remains

broken stone

grit

detritus

wreckage

junk

dust

spoil

pebble

rubbish

precipice

quarrystone

road metal

ruin

slack

trash

wreck

rubble stone

waste

broken brick

rough ashlar

waste rock

crushed brick

abyss

small chips

bat

🦇

boulder

cobble

cobblestone

collapse

crash

fieldstone

float

fragments

leavings

muck

paving stone

Translations

Schutt

puin

rommel

escombros

escombros

prullaria

décombres

débris

macerie

afval

breccia

detrito

abattis

déblai

Trümmer

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɹʌb.əl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: rouble

In summary

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.

Sentences

The walls are of rubble , which includes some Roman tile , with ashlar dressings .