litter

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lit·ter

(lit'ĕr),
1. A stretcher or portable couch for moving the sick or injured.
2. A group of animals of the same parents, born at the same time. Synonym(s): brood (1)
[Fr. litière; fr. lit, bed]
Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

litter

(lĭt′ər)
n.
1. The group of offspring produced at one birth by a mammal.
2. A flat supporting framework, such as a piece of canvas stretched between parallel shafts, for carrying a disabled or dead person; a stretcher.
v. lit·tered, lit·tering, lit·ters
v.tr.
1. To give birth to (a litter).
2. To make untidy by discarding rubbish carelessly: Someone had littered the beach with food wrappers.
3. To scatter about: littered towels all over the locker room.
4. To be scattered about (an area): "A lot of torn envelopes and open letters littered his bed" (Joseph Conrad).
5. To include certain items such as expressions throughout (a speech or piece of writing, for example): littered his letters with the names of powerful friends.
6. Archaic To supply (animals) with litter for bedding or floor covering.
v.intr.
1. To give birth to a litter.
2. To scatter litter.

lit′ter·er n.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

litter

Military medicine A mobile bed for transporting wounded military personnel Vox populi Trash strewn in a public or open place
McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

lit·ter

(lit'ĕr)
1. A stretcher or portable couch for moving the sick or injured.
2. A group of animals of the same parents, born at the same time.
[Fr. litière; fr. lit, bed]
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012

litter

  1. any material aggregated on the surface of soil from above-ground vegetation.
  2. the offspring produced at any one time by a mammal.
Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005
References in periodicals archive ?
Endemic species such as the pink and white lady's slipper -- Minnesota's state flower -- as well as ferns, orchids and the saplings of coniferous trees rely on the spongy layer of leaf litter.
This is particularly true in forest settings, since leaf litter can accumulate on surface remains and slowly bury them during each successive autumn season.
Leaf litter decomposition: The experiment was conducted over a period of six months (August 2013-January 2014).
NUE, NRE and N for leaf litter were comparatively higher in the NF than in the regenerating forest sites.
At each collection, only the leaf litter of the tree species under consideration were sorted and put in labeled polythene bags indicating the tree species and pruning regime.
Effects of leaf litter on establishment, growth and survival of invasive plant seedlings in a deciduous forest.
The concentrations of all nutrients in leaf litter were higher than in nonleaf litter in both stands (Table 7).
Over the span of 12 weeks, the team collected samples of water, soil, roots, young leaves and leaf litter (fallen leaves).
This showed that higher abundance of pygmy grasshoppers could be found in wetter microhabitats (waterlogged, wet muddy and wet dicot leaf litter) than in drier microhabitats (dry sandy, dry muddy and dry dicot leaf litter).
tenellum, rock, leaf litter, other herbaceous plants, non-canopy woody plants and bare soil was visually estimated in each quadrat (Van Auken & Bush 1992).