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Wastebasket

Household Objects
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A small container for discarded paper and household refuse. It can suggest loss, revision, and what a home chooses to throw away.

Detailed Definition
A wastebasket is a modest bin kept in a bedroom, office, or kitchen for scraps, wrappers, and discarded papers. For poets, it naturally connects to failed drafts, torn letters, and the private debris of thought. Its contents can reveal a household more honestly than its decorations do. A wastebasket may symbolize rejection, renewal through editing, or the uneasy persistence of things believed to be gone.
Example
Example in poetry:
A wastebasket filled with torn drafts can represent the failures and revisions behind a finished poem; “In the wastebasket, my crossed-out selves overflow” turns discarded paper into a metaphor for identity; A poet can contrast a clean wastebasket with a cluttered desk to reveal a speaker’s need for control; The sound of a crumpled note landing in a wastebasket can punctuate a scene of rejection, anger, or decision
Additional Notes
A wastebasket can symbolize rejection, revision, or secrecy. In poems, its contents may reveal what a speaker tries to erase or cannot keep.
Also Known As
Wastepaper Basket Trash Can Rubbish Bin
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