rubble

1 of 2

noun

rub·​ble ˈrə-bəl How to pronounce rubble (audio)
1
a
: broken fragments (as of rock) resulting from the decay or destruction of a building
fortifications knocked into rubbleC. S. Forester
b
: a miscellaneous confused mass or group of usually broken or worthless things
2
: waterworn or rough broken stones or bricks used in coarse masonry or in filling courses of walls
3
: rough stone as it comes from the quarry

rubble

2 of 2

verb

rubbled; rubbling ˈrə-b(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce rubble (audio)

transitive verb

: to reduce to rubble

Examples of rubble in a Sentence

Noun Rescue workers managed to pull two injured people out of the rubble. The earthquake reduced the whole town to rubble.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Under the rubble In the initial weeks of Israel’s air campaign, the missing were mainly believed to be trapped, dead or alive, under rubble. Miriam Berger, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2024 Aerial images from the scene showed smoking ruins, with the structure reduced to rubble and some large pieces lodged in trees above. Pilar Arias, Fox News, 13 Mar. 2024 Mars Sample Return would deliver rocks, rubble and dust from the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater that has already been gathered and sealed into tubes by the Perseverance rover. Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2024 Scientists aboard a research vessel off the coast of Spain sifted through the rubble dumped from a trawling net. Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 5 Mar. 2024 Eight-year-old Zlata and 9-year-old Sergiy were the last to be pulled from the rubble on Sunday. Svitlana Vlasova, CNN, 4 Mar. 2024 Rescue services combed through the rubble looking for survivors. Susie Blann The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 25 Feb. 2024 In a separate strike in eastern Rafah on Saturday, 14 members of the same family were killed, and as many as 10 others were trapped under rubble. D. Parvaz, NPR, 4 Mar. 2024 Drone imagery also shows quad bikes, also known as ATVs, aflame in the daylight, on empty, ghostly plains of rubble and carcasses. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 29 Feb. 2024
Verb
The regime shelled the city, reducing neighborhoods to rubble. Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024 Israel's air, sea and ground offensive has reduced much of densely populated northern Gaza to rubble. Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 3 Mar. 2024 Israel’s air, sea and ground offensive has reduced much of densely populated northern Gaza to rubble. Samy Magdy, Twin Cities, 2 Mar. 2024 A day earlier, a Russian Iskander ballistic missile turned a village café and store to rubble in Hroza, a village in eastern Ukraine, killing dozens of civilians, according to Ukrainian officials. Hanna Arhirova The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 7 Oct. 2023 The war has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and caused what the U.N. has called a humanitarian catastrophe. Fox News, 19 Feb. 2024 Her husband bulldozed the building and reduced it to rubble forever. Kira Caspers, The Arizona Republic, 14 Feb. 2024 Israel says the war in Gaza, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, killing thousands and plunging its 2.3 million people into a humanitarian disaster, has many months to go. NBC News, 2 Jan. 2024 Outside, the tornado had turned the farm's 103-year-old barn to rubble and strewn debris across the fields for hundreds of yards. Todd Richmond and Scott Bauer The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 10 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rubble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English robyl

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1944, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of rubble was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near rubble

Cite this Entry

“Rubble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rubble. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

rubble

noun
rub·​ble
ˈrəb-əl
1
: rough broken stones or bricks used in building
2
: a confused mass of rough or broken things

More from Merriam-Webster on rubble

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!