garbo

plural garbos

1. AustraliacountableinformalA rubbish collector; a garbage man.

   The priest would bring salvation while the garbo took the rubbish.

   2010, Adam Shand, The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia′s Toughest Cop, page 350

   3 more examples

   Then believe it or not, I worked for some time as a garbo, collecting the rubbish in the wee hours of the morning.

   1986, Emily George, Merri Lee: A Feminist Fantasy, page 124

   The referendum papers, accompanied by a strong statement of Council′s position, was to be letterboxed by the Council′s “garbos” (rubbish collectors) and inspectors on a Thursday and collected by volunteers over the weekend.

   1998, Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life & Times of Nick Origlass, 1908-1996, page 253

   As far as Jasper was concerned, his mum being a garbo was pretty cool. She got to drive a truck and be home in time to take his little sisters to school. Before she got the job as a rubbish collector, his mum had done shift work and it was left to Jasper to get his sisters to school.

   2010, Zana Fraillon, Monstrum House: Locked In, unnumbered page

2. AustraliaCanadaUScolloquialderogatoryuncountableGarbage; something considered worthless.

   Then Noelle told me she's a Paralympian and I was like, "Well, my lie was just garbo. That was terrible. Noelle, you're a beast!"

   2022 December 7, Mike Bloom, quoting Sami Layadi, “'Survivor 43's' Sami Layadi Explains Why He Never Went After Cody and Jesse”, in Parade, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2022

   3 more examples

   "Any quartz in the Mountain?" / "Just garbo quartz, not enough to produce any electrical fields." / "No disruption in the magnetic field?" / "No, sir."

   2012, Mickael Taddeo, Gabriel's Mountain, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 229

   Then they beat me and burned me and locked me up, before handing me back like a piece of garbo, when I acted up or they got tired of me.

   2016, Clare Revell, Violets in February, Pelican Book Group, →ISBN

   Another Twitter user wrote, "I could lie to you and say that I'm totally not interested in that game [but] I am interested. It sucks so much that JKR is a transphobic piece of garbo. ... I think if I do play it, I'll make it clear in all promotions my feelings about JKR and also promote a trans charity for folks to donate their funds towards. Maybe it's not enough, and I might not have a lot of funds, but I do wanna use my voice to do what I can to support my trans friends."

   2022 March 19, Dan Clarendon, “'Hogwarts Legacy' Will Reportedly Welcome Transgender Characters — You Hear That, J.K.?”, in Distractify, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2022

1. colloquialnot comparableUseless or worthless.

   This film is garbo; they didn't hire any writers!