【Refuse】 ,  【waste】 ,  【rubbish】 ,  【trash】 ,  【debris】 ,  【garbage】 ,  【offal】  can all mean matter that is regarded as worthless and fit only for throwing away.

【Refuse】 , ordinarily the most comprehensive term of the group, stresses the rejection of the matter, or its uselessness from the point of view of the owner (as a manufacturer, processor, builder, or housekeeper) and usually implies its being cast aside or thrown away. The term includes anything covered by this description without regard to whether another will find use for it.

【Waste】  may also be a comprehensive term approaching  【refuse】 in meaning, but it typically applies to material that is unused by its producer but can or could be useful in other ways or in other circumstances or to other people.

【Rubbish】 is likely to mean an accumulation of useless material and worn-out, broken-down, used up, worthless things.

【Trash】  stresses material of no account (as something worn-out or exhausted of what was good in it or parts discarded in shaping, trimming, or clipping). In general use  【trash】  is often employed in place of  【rubbish】  as a name for 【waste】 materials requiring disposition, but both terms in this sense usually exclude 【refuse】 that is animal or vegetable matter.

【Debris】 usually applies to what remains from the breaking up, the disintegration, or the destruction of something (as a building, a wall, or a tree); the term usually suggests a loose accumulation of detritus or broken fragments.

【Garbage】  chiefly applies to organic 【refuse】 (as from a kitchen, a store, or a market) including 【waste】 of animal or vegetable origin or animal or vegetable matter that is or is regarded as unfit for human food.

【Offal】  may refer to something (as chips of wood or pieces of leather) cut off in dressing or fitting for use, but the term is usually applied specifically to the parts of a butchered animal that are removed in dressing the carcass, that consist chiefly of viscera (as liver, kidneys, and heart) and of trimmings (as tail, hooves, blood, and head meat), and that include edible meats and raw materials for processing as well as 【refuse】 . But  【offal】 may also be applied to carrion and other worthless or distasteful 【refuse】 and tends then and in extended use to stress offensiveness or disagreeableness.

All these terms except  【waste】  also have extended use;  【refuse】 refers usually to something left after the available supply has been thoroughly picked over and therefore implies the worst, the meanest, or the least desirable of the lot.

【Rubbish】 may be applied to something (as inferior merchandise or a ridiculous or nonsensical idea, argument, or discussion) that in its worthlessness suggests a heap of 【trash】 .

【Trash】 retains its implication of relative worthlessness.

【Debris】 may be applied to something immaterial or intangible that remains as evidence of what the original thing once was.

【Garbage】 also may be applied to something that in comparison with other things of the same sort may be described as filthy or foul.

【Offal】 ordinarily applies to persons considered as the lowest or meanest of 【refuse】 or as offscourings.