rubbish heap; garbage dump
Refers to a place where swept-up trash is piled; often used literally, but also appears in the proverb 掃き溜めに鶴 (a jewel in a dunghill).
It's like a crane in a rubbish heap.
I made a rubbish heap in the corner of the garden.
Standard kanji spelling.
Irregular okurigana usage; abbreviated form.
Mixed kanji-kana spelling, common in everyday writing.
Irregular okurigana usage; less common.
Compound of 掃き (haki, 'sweeping', continuative form of 掃く) and 溜め (tame, 'accumulation', continuative form of 溜める), literally 'swept-up pile'.