This stark noun describes the refuse or waste left in streets, the kind of repulsive material trampled underfoot. Isaiah uses it in a judgment oracle to depict corpses lying unburied like garbage in the streets—their carcasses 'like refuse in the midst of the streets.' The image conveys utter contempt and the reversal of human dignity. What should receive proper burial is instead treated as worthless trash. The Arabic cognate similarly means to scrape away or clear away waste, emphasizing the disposable, contaminating nature of this material.