• (British) IPA: /ˈlɪtə(ɹ)/
• (America) IPA: /ˈlɪtɚ/, [ˈlɪɾɚ]

litter

1. (countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene vi]:

     There is a litter ready; lay him in 't.

2. (collective, countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.

   • A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter.

3. (uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.
4. (uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, ''''

     Strephon […] / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.

5. (uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
6. (uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
7. A covering of straw for plants.

   • Take off the litter from your kernel beds.

• (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet
• (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junk

• French: litière
• German: Sänfte, Trage, Bahre
• Italian: lettiga, portantina, palanchino
• Portuguese: maca
• Russian: паланки́н
• Spanish: litera, artola

• French: portée
• German: Wurf
• Italian: cucciolata
• Portuguese: ninhada
• Russian: припло́д
• Spanish: camada

• French: litière
• German: Streu, Stroh
• Italian: lettiera
• Russian: подсти́лка
• Spanish: cama

• French: détritus
• German: Abfall, Unrat, Müll, Abfälle
• Italian: rifiuti, immondizia, spazzatura
• Portuguese: lixo
• Russian: сор
• Spanish: detritus, basura

• French: litière
• German: Streu, Einstreu
• Italian: lettiera
• Russian: подсти́лка
• Spanish: letiera

• German: Streu, Bodenstreu
• Spanish: colchón de hojas

litter (litters, present participle littering; past and past participle littered)

1. (intransitive) To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
   • By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering.
2. (transitive) To scatter carelessly about.
3. (transitive) To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa

     the room with volumes littered round

4. (transitive) To give birth to, used of animals.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

     We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.

   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

     The son that she did litter here, / A freckled whelp hagborn.

5. (intransitive) To produce a litter of young.
   • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:

6. (transitive) To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.

   • Tell them how they litter their jades.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415 ↗:

     For his ease, well litter'd was the floor.

7. (intransitive) To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.

   • The inn where he and his horse littered.

• German: Abfall wegwerfen, vermüllen, wegwerfen
• Russian: сори́ть

• German: werfen, ferkeln, abferkeln
• Spanish: parir