litter vs waste

litter

noun
  • Collectively, items discarded on the ground. 

  • Material used as bedding for animals. 

  • A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol. 

  • A covering of straw for plants. 

  • Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray 

  • The offspring of a mammal born in one birth. 

  • Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor. 

verb
  • To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles). 

  • To give birth to, used of animals. 

  • To strew (a place) with scattered articles. 

  • To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall. 

  • To scatter carelessly about. 

  • To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter. 

  • To produce a litter of young. 

waste

noun
  • A place that has been laid waste or destroyed. 

  • A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect. 

  • Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste". 

  • A disused mine or part of one. 

  • Excrement or urine. 

  • Gradual loss or decay. 

  • Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea. 

  • The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land. 

  • The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use. 

  • Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish. 

  • A vast expanse of water. 

  • A large tract of uncultivated land. 

  • A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert. 

  • Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used. 

  • A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away. 

verb
  • To devastate; to destroy. 

  • To kill; to murder. 

  • To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail. 

  • To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly. 

  • To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out. 

  • To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually. 

  • To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay. 

adj
  • Barren; desert. 

  • Superfluous; needless. 

  • Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess. 

  • Useless and contemptible. 

  • Dismal; gloomy; cheerless. 

  • Unfortunate; disappointing. 

How often have the words litter and waste occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )