dumping ground

English

Noun

dumping ground (plural dumping grounds)

  1. A landfill.
  2. (figurative) Any place where unwanted items are sent.
    • 2015, Alison Matthews David, Fashion Victims: The Damages of Dress Past and Present, →ISBN, page 210:
      The Indian representative of a global trade union called IndustriALL warned that other clothes and accessories shipped overseas might also be radioactive because India has become a "dumping ground" for the West's hazardous waste.
    • 2021 June 16, “Network News: Boost for Stanton Gate revival”, in RAIL, number 933, page 14:
      Around 25 years ago, it was used as a dumping ground for Toton locomotives destined for scrapyards.
  3. (taxonomy) A presumably polyphyletic supraspecific taxon where species of unclear affinities are placed.
    Synonym: wastebasket taxon
    • 2008 December, Mark W. Chase et al., “Taxonomic transfers in Oncidiinae to accord with Genera Orchidacearum, Vol. 5”, in Lindleyana:
      Several genera, e.g. Miltonia Lindl., Odontoglossum Kunth and Oncidium Sw., have historically been viewed as taxa of convenience and thus became dumping grounds for species of unclear relationships.
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