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rubble

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rubble

  • /ˈɹʌb.əl/

Rhymes with -ʌbəl

Where it comes from

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.

noun rubbles

  1. countable, uncountable The broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry. The main East Coast line from Edinburgh to Berwick was blocked at Cockburnspath and Grantshouse by flood water, which washed away part of an embankment, and by the collapse of about 300 tons of rubble on to the track.
  2. countable, uncountable A mass or stratum of fragments of rock lying under the alluvium and derived from the neighbouring rock. The overlying beds are composed of such calcareous rubble and flints, rudely stratified
  3. UK, countable, dialectal, in plural, uncountable The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.

verb rubbles · rubbling · rubbled

  1. transitive To break down into rubble.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: debris, junk, dust, detritus, scrap, collapse, destruction, wreckage, wreck, ruin, disrepair, ice, plaster, roof, cobble, pebble

Translations

Every language

noun the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry

Españolescombros, desmonte, escombra
한국어파편 papyeon, 와력 waryeok
日本語瓦礫 gareki
中文瓦礫 /瓦砾 wǎlì, 碎石 suìshí
Kiswahilifusi
Portuguêsentulho, escombros
Françaisdécombres, débris, gravats
DeutschSchutt
Italianocalcinacci, macerie, detriti
Românămoloz, dărâmătură
Русскийобло́мки oblómki, ще́бень ščébenʹ
العربيةأَنْقَاض ʔanqāḍ, رُكام rukām

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Cite this
MLA

"rubble." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/rubble. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

rubble. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/rubble

Chicago

"rubble." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/rubble.

BibTeX
@misc{rubble_2026,
  title = {rubble},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/rubble},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}