Litter \Lit"ter\, v. i.

1. To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter. [R.]

The inn Where he and his horse littered. --Habington.

2. To produce a litter.

A desert . . . where the she-wolf still littered. --Macaulay.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Litter \Lit"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Littered; p. pr. & vb. n. Littering.]

1. To supply with litter, as cattle; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.

Tell them how they litter their jades. --Bp. Hacke?.

For his ease, well littered was the floor. --Dryden.

2. To put into a confused or disordered condition; to strew with scattered articles; as, to litter a room.

The room with volumes littered round. --Swift.

3. To give birth to; to bear; -- said of brutes, esp. those which produce more than one at a birth, and also of human beings, in abhorrence or contempt.

We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. --Sir T. Browne.

The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Litter \Lit"ter\, n. [F. liti[`e]re, LL. lectaria, fr. L. lectus couch, bed. See Lie to be prostrated, and cf. Coverlet.]

1. A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it.

There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. --Shak.

2. Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants.

To crouch in litter of your stable planks. --Shak.

Take off the litter from your kernel beds. --Evelyn.

3. Things lying scattered about in a manner indicating slovenliness; scattered rubbish.

Strephon, who found the room was void. Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay. --Swift.

4. Disorder or untidiness resulting from scattered rubbish, or from thongs lying about uncared for; as, a room in a state of litter.

5. The young brought forth at one time, by a sow or other multiparous animal, taken collectively. Also Fig.

A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter. --D. Estrange.

Reflect upon numerous litter of strange, senseless opinions that crawl about the world. --South.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)