- discard
- discard vb Discard, cast, shed, molt, slough, scrap, junk mean to get rid of as of no further use, value, or service.Discard literally denotes the getting rid of a card from one's hand in a card game, usually because they are worthless or can be replaced by better cards; in its more common general sense, it implies a getting rid of something which one can no longer use to advantage or which has become a burden, an annoyance, or an interference{
he sorted and re-sorted his cargo, always finding a more necessary article for which a less necessary had to be discarded— Cather
}{modern research, which discards obsolete hypotheses without scruple or sentiment— Inge
}{in portrait painting, where a painter discards many trivial points of exactness, in order to heighten the truth of a few fundamentals— Montague
}Cast (see also THROW) may imply a seasonal process of discarding (as the throw off of skin by a reptile){creatures that cast their skin are the snake, the viper— Bacon
}Especially when followed by off, away, or out, it more frequently implies a discarding, a rejection, a discharging, or a repudiation{his wife was casting him off, half regretfully, but relentlessly— D. H. Lawrence
}{an Englishman like an Ethiopian cannot change his skin any more than a leopard can cast off his spots— Cloete
}Shed is the ordinary, general term for the seasonal or periodic casting of skin, hair, antlers, or leaves{deciduous trees shed their leaves every autumn
}{male deer shed their antlers annually
}The term is used also to imply a throwing off or discarding of anything that is a burden to carry, that represents a past stage in one's development, or that is no longer useful or comfortable{found it warm enough to shed his overcoat
}{statesmen may try to shed their responsibility by treating the situation as a natural phenomenon— Hobson
}{Jane . . . was acquiring new subtleties, complexities, and comprehensions, and shedding crudities— Rose Macaulay
}Molt is the specific term for the periodic shedding of feathers, skin, shells, hair, or horns by various animals and the growth of new corresponding parts. It often suggests a process of a change in plumage including the shedding of feathers and their renewal{the eagle when he molts is sickly— Carlyle
}{while hens are molting they do not lay eggs
}In general use molt even more often than shed implies change, flux, or transition{England is molting. Opinions ... are ... in a state of flux— Goldwin Smith
}{belief . . . that society can molt its outer covering and become new in shape and spirit— J. D. Hart
}Slough implies the shedding of tissue (as the skin by a reptile or, especially in intransitive use, of necrotic or cicatricial tissue from the surface of a sore or wound){the snake often sloughs its skin in mid-September
}{the scab is sloughing off from the sore
}The term is also common in the sense of to discard or throw off what has become objectionable, burdensome, or useless{slough a bad habit
}{this talented author has sloughed off most of her more irritating sentimentalities— Times Lit. Sup.
}{as though her gaunt and worldly air had been only a mockery she began to slough it off— Bromfieldy
}The last two words, scrap and junk, have literal reference to the throwing away of fragments, parts, or pieces that are useless to the owner or can no longer be used by him.Scrap suggests a discarding as rubbish or refuse, but it may carry an implication of some use to another (as a processor or a dealer in parts or accessories){scrap out-of-date machinery
}{scrap a plan as impractical
}{all the old ideas of combat had to be scrapped
}{the English language that Shakespeare was born to had used up and scrapped a good deal of the English of Chaucer— Montague
}Junk differs little from scrap except in stressing a throwing away and in carrying little implication of value to a second-hand dealer or to a processor of waste{junk all their old furniture before moving into their new home
}{in its astonishing quest for perfection, can junk an entire system of ideas almost overnight— Davidson
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
