discard

From dis- +‎ card. Compare Spanish descartar.

• (verb)
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkɑːd/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkɑɹd/
• (noun)
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskɑːd/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskɑɹd/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)d

discard (third-person singular simple present discards, present participle discarding, simple past and past participle discarded)

1. (transitive) To throw away, to reject.

   Synonyms: cast away, dismiss, dispose, eliminate, get rid of, throw away; see also Thesaurus:junk

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, OCLC 2619891:

     A man discards the follies of boyhood.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, pages 67-68:

     My next stop is Oxford, which has also grown with the addition of new platforms to accommodate the Chiltern Railways service to London via Bicester - although, short sightedly, the planned electrification from Paddington was canned. Evidence of the volte-face can be seen along the line at places such as Radley, where mast piles are already sunk or lie discarded at the lineside.

2. (intransitive, card games) To make a discard; to throw out a card.
3. To dismiss from employment, confidence, or favour; to discharge.

   Synonyms: fire, let go, sack; see also Thesaurus:lay off

   • 1711 December 8, [Jonathan Swift], The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War, 4th edition, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, OCLC 1204920679, page 65:

     […] They blame the Favourites in point of Policy, and think it nothing extraordinary, that the Queen ſhould be at an end of Her Patience, and reſolve to diſcard them.

discard (plural discards)

1. Anything discarded.
2. A discarded playing card in a card game.
3. (programming) A temporary variable used to receive a value of no importance and unable to be read later.
   • 2017, Andrew Troelsen, Philip Japikse, Pro C# 7: With .NET and .NET Core (page 120)

     Discards can be used with out parameters, with tuples, with pattern matching (Chapters 6 and 8), or even as stand-alone variables.

• discard in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• discard in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• ID cards