Etymology

From the likening of the black patches around a raccoon's eyes to similar markings on a giant panda, it being in the same superfamily as the red panda, and a reference to its tendency to forage for garbage in urban environments.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#TRASHPANDA

Noun

trash panda (plural trash pandas)Category:English lemmas#TRASHPANDACategory:English nouns#TRASHPANDACategory:English countable nouns#TRASHPANDACategory:English multiword terms#TRASHPANDACategory:English entries with incorrect language header#TRASHPANDACategory:Pages with entries#TRASH%20PANDACategory:Pages with 1 entry#TRASH%20PANDA

2. (USCategory:American English#TRASHPANDA, CanadaCategory:Canadian English#TRASHPANDA, kenningCategory:English kennings#TRASHPANDA, slangCategory:English slang#TRASHPANDA, humorousCategory:English humorous terms#TRASHPANDA) A raccoon, especially one that forages in garbage cans.

   Synonyms: dumpster bandit, dumpster panda, garbage panda

   • 2016 April 30, Zach Dennis, “Florida man tries to feed ‘trash panda’ in epic fail”, in Palm Beach Post, retrieved 13 April 2018:

     Braddock Baskett of the Orlando-area attempted to give some raccoons food. […] Maybe he should’ve taken his own warning before feeding the “trash panda”.

     Category:English terms with quotations#TRASHPANDA

   • 2017 July 14, Josh Rottenberg, “All the intel on Disney and Pixar's new slate of animated films”, in Los Angeles Times, retrieved 13 April 2018:

     [T]he family baby, Jack-Jack, sees a raccoon eating from the family’s garbage can while his father, Mr. Incredible, is sleeping, and uses his superpowers […] to do battle with the trash panda.

     Category:English terms with quotations#TRASHPANDA

   • 2018 April 12, Alanna Rizza, “It took this raccoon 30 seconds to break into a raccoon-proof green bin”, in The Star, Canada, retrieved 13 April 2018:

     A video posted to Facebook on Saturday shows a trash panda breaking into a “raccoon-proof” green bin in less than 30 seconds.

     Category:English terms with quotations#TRASHPANDA

Further reading

• trash panda on Wikipedia.Wikipedia