From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdebrisdeb‧ris /ˈdebriː, ˈdeɪ- $ dəˈbriː, deɪ-/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] 1 REMAIN/BE LEFTthe pieces of something that are left after it has been destroyed in an accident, explosion etc She was hit by flying debris from the blast.2 technical pieces of waste material, paper etcplant/garden/industrial etc debris Clean the ventilation ducts to remove dust and insect debris.
Examples from the Corpus
debris• Fragments of building debris can form a large part of the total number of finds from a site.• Men on board pulled the wounded and the mangled bodies of the dead from beneath collapsed debris.• Wheels spun free and shredded carbon-fibre debris from disintegrating front wings flew in all directions.• And arrowheads and other debris excavated from the ruins indicate that Qumran, too, opposed the Romans by force of arms.• Flaps were to be left in the down position to facilitate the removal of mud and other debris prior to their retraction.• Like a widening conveyer belt it scraped away more and more of the hillsides and carried off the debris.• The beach was littered with debris.flying debris• The hardtop shuddered with the impact of flying debris.• Also, the order in which the individual loads of dynamite were detonated determined the principal direction for the flying debris.plant/garden/industrial etc debris• Slugs and snails Soft-bodied, voracious molluscs that often shelter by day beneath leaves and plant debris, and feed at night.• Get the Tidi Noir, a light, plastic bag, for garden debris.• Jobs, both temporary and permanent, have been created from industrial debris.• And always remove old plant debris.Origin debris (1700-1800) French débris, from Old French debriser “to break in pieces” 