wheelie bin

noun

A wheeled outdoor rubbish bin designed for easy movement.

Meanings

nounwheelie bin (plural wheelie bins)

plural wheelie bins · alternative wheelie-bin

  1. AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUKA wheeled outdoor rubbish bin designed for easy movement.

    You see the occasional frustrated libidinous lunatics walking along Johnson Street kickboxing at the wheelie bins and spreading the contents all over the road.

    2005, John Chalmers, Byron Bay Taxis And Lunacies, page 85
    4 more examples

    Instead we switched from dustbins to wheelie bins which required equally significant investment in new bins and refuse vehicles. However because the wheelie bins were larger and easier to collect they actually increased the volume of unsegregated waste.

    1999, David Rudlin, Nicholas Falk, Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood, UK: Elsevier, page 95

    It collects waste materials, including paper, glass, plastics and metals, in the blue-topped recycling wheelie bins from more than two million households each week.

    2009, James Kirby, Rod Myer, Richard Pratt: One Out of the Box: The Secrets of an Australian Billionaire, page 49

    She likes to go into town using her wheelchair. It can be difficult when people leave their wheelie bins out on the pavement and she has to go into the road to get past.

    2011, Peter Beresford, Jennie Fleming, Catherone Bewley, Michael Glynn, Suzy Croft, Supporting People: Towards a Person-Centred Approach, UK: The Policy Press, page 271

    The next Monday afternoon Daryl hooked his wheelie bin onto the ute′s tow bar. He was just about to tow it up the driveway when Doris yelled out, telling him to go to the shops and grab some milk. With his wheelie bin in tow Daryl set off.

    2012, John Bryant, Great Australian Ute Stories, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page

    Synonyms: dustbin, garbage bin, skip

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA wheeled outdoor rubbish bin designed for easy movement.

Origin

From wheelie (“presumably a variant of wheely (wheeled)”) + bin.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish pyörällinen jäteastia, pyörällinen roska-astia
  • pyörällinen jäteastiaoutdoor rubbish bin
  • pyörällinen roska-astiaoutdoor rubbish bin
German Mülltonne mit Rollen, Rolltonne
  • Mülltonne mit Rollenoutdoor rubbish bin
  • Rolltonneoutdoor rubbish bin
Polish kosz na śmieci na kółkach
  • kosz na śmieci na kółkachoutdoor rubbish bin
Romanian tomberon
  • tomberonoutdoor rubbish bin
Spanish zafacón, safacón
  • zafacónoutdoor rubbish bin
  • safacónoutdoor rubbish bin
Turkish tekerlekli çöp konteyneri
  • tekerlekli çöp konteynerioutdoor rubbish bin
Cite this entry
APA

wheelie bin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wheelie%20bin

MLA

“wheelie bin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wheelie%20bin. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wheelie bin,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wheelie%20bin.

Source: wheelie bin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.