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🥤 Used once 💵 Available to use 🗑️ A throwaway item
disposable

disposable

5 2.8
An item you use once and then throw away
  • noun
  • /dɪsˈpoʊzəbl/
translation icon : producto desechable
  • The hospital where I had my little boy provided cloth nappies rather than disposables for this reason.
  • disposables like diapers
  • absorbent disposables
  • use disposables

This is a really small version which you I've got disposables in, but they come in larger versions too, like these and I just stick pencils in them and things like that.

Examples

  • You can buy a disposable earplug plug dispenser that mounts on your wall full of earplugs.

  • I'm going to use these plastic disposable spoons because they're quite cheap and just be thrown away otherwise.

  • This is a little disposable brush from the Make Up Pro store.

  • The growing mountain of disposable clothes that are made somewhere unethically like that.

  • At times, you may need to supplement with disposables, but if you put them out, people will always use them first.

    Blog text (27)

  • The very first disposable pads were thought up by nurses in France who needed something to stop excessive bleeding, especially on the battlefield.

  • I see far fewer cases of diaper rash on babies wearing cloth diapers than I do in disposables.

    Blog text (30)

  • We use cloth, but we have a "back-up" of biodegradable disposables from Earth's Best for sleep and babysitters.

    Blog text (30)

  • These disposable plates are perfect for our picnic; we can just throw them away after the meal.

  • I bought a pack of disposable cups for the party, so we won't have to worry about washing dishes.

Synonyms

consumable
vsdisposable
4 3.9

An item used up and replaced regularly, like paper or food

refers to items discarded after a few uses rather than replaced regularly
throwaway
vsdisposable
1 4.1

A thing meant to be used once and then put in the bin

allows one or a few uses rather than only one

Antonyms

reusable
18 3.2

You can use it more than once

durable
1 3.7

A product made to last many years, like a fridge or washing machine

Compounds

disposable income
  • Specialized
16 3.6

Money a household has to spend or save after taxes are taken out

How Disposable

disposable
5 2.8
reusable
18 3.2
durable
1 3.7

Surface Forms

disposable singular
disposables plural

Morphology

disposable = disposable (transparent) = dispose + able

The noun is a regular substantivized use of the adjective 'disposable', whose meaning is transparently built from 'dispose' + '-able'.

Etymology

The noun disposable names an item meant to be used once and then thrown away; it comes from dispose and disposal ('throw away'), so a disposable is something you 'dispose of' after use.