waste

[[t]weɪst[/t]]

v. wast•ed, wast•ing, n. adj.

1) to consume or use to no avail or profit; squander:

to waste natural resources[/ex]

2) to fail or neglect to use

3) to destroy or consume gradually; wear away:

waves wasting the rocky shore[/ex]

4) to wear down or reduce in bodily substance or strength; emaciate; enfeeble:

to be wasted by disease[/ex]

5) to devastate or ruin:

a country wasted by a long futile war[/ex]

6) cvb sts Slang. to kill or murder

7) to be consumed or employed uselessly or inadequately

8) to become gradually used up or worn away

9) to become physically worn, esp. emaciated or enfeebled

10) to diminish gradually, as wealth or power; dwindle

11) useless consumption or expenditure; an act or instance of wasting:

a complete waste of my time[/ex]

12) neglect, instead of use

13) gradual impairment or decay

14) devastation or ruin

15) an area devastated or ruined:

a blackened waste where timberland had stood[/ex]

16) anything unused, inadequately used, or unproductive

17) desolate country, as desert

18) something left over or superfluous:

salvaging factory wastes[/ex]

19) geo material derived by mechanical and chemical disintegration of rock, as the detritus transported by streams, rivers, etc

20) garbage; refuse

21) phl wastes, excrement

22) not used or in use:

waste energy[/ex]

23) (of land, regions, etc.) wild; desolate

24) (of regions, towns, etc.) in a state of desolation and ruin

25) left over; superfluous:

to utilize the waste products of manufacture[/ex]

26) rejected as useless or worthless; refuse

27) phl Physiol. pertaining to material unused by or unusable to the organism

28) designed or used to receive or carry away useless material (often in combination):

a waste pipe[/ex]

•

- go to waste lay waste

Etymology: 1150–1200; ME < ONF waster (OF g(u) aster) < L vāstāre, der. of vāstus desolate; ONF w-, OF gu- by influence of c. Frankish *wōsti desolate (c. OHG wuosti) wast′a•ble, adj.