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table scrap

table scrap

3 2.7
A small amount of leftover food from a meal that is given to animals or thrown away
  • noun
  • /ˈteɪbəl skræp/
translation icon : sobras
  • Simply keep a small container for table scraps, peels, etc. on your counter or in your freezer that you regularly empty into a larger pile.
  • pet table scraps
  • table scraps and treats

Examples

  • I left some table scraps in there for your supper.

  • Maybe Zero can send them some table scraps.

    Blog text (14)
  • We have to eat their table scraps.

  • If you forget that again, there'll be no table scraps for a week!

  • They can eat table scraps or anything that you will eat.

    Blog text (4)
  • Just the table scraps would have been a banquet for Uncle Francis.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • After the meal, I take the table scraps and go out to feed the chickens, milk the goats, and muck the garden.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The hens also get all the spent garden plants, weeds, and the occasional table scraps and uneaten dog food.

    Blog text (23)
  • There are many, many online resources warning of common seasonal dangers to pets—antifreeze, tinsel, poisonous plants, unusual or excessive table scraps, and more.

    Blog text (2)
  • After dinner, I always take the leftover food and put the table scraps outside for the raccoons.

Synonyms

scrap
vstable scrap
179 2.1

A small piece left over or thrown away

applies only to meal remains of food, not general discarded fragments
ort
vstable scrap
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A small piece of food left after a meal

is usually discarded or fed to animals rather than kept for later
scraps
vstable scrap
1.0

Small pieces of food left over after a meal

is specifically the table remains often discarded or given to animals
leftovers
vstable scrap
1.0

Food remaining after a meal that you save to eat later

is instead commonly thrown away or offered to animals, not saved

How Much

remains
86 3.6
leftover
187 1.7
table scrap
3 2.7
morsel
28 3.2
crumb
96 1.0

Surface Forms

table scrap singular
table scraps plural

Morphology

table + scrap

The sense 'leftover food from a meal' is directly derivable from combining 'table' (meals/where food is served) with 'scrap' (a small leftover piece). The composition follows a transparent noun+noun pattern found across languages (e.g. 'food scraps', 'restos de mesa'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The noun table scraps comes from the simple picture of small pieces of food left on the table after a meal. People would sweep these scraps to feed animals or throw them away, so table scraps now means 'leftover food'.