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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

waste       (wāst)  Pronunciation Key  v.   wast·ed, wast·ing, wastes v.   tr. To use, consume, spend, or expend thoughtlessly or carelessly. To cause to lose energy, strength, or vigor; exhaust, tire, or enfeeble: Disease wasted his body. To fail to take advantage of or use for profit; lose: waste an opportunity. To destroy completely. Slang To kill; murder. v.   intr. To lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor; become weak or enfeebled: wasting away from an illness. To pass without being put to use: Time is wasting. n.   The act or an instance of wasting or the condition of being wasted: a waste of talent; gone to waste. A place, region, or land that is uninhabited or uncultivated; a desert or wilderness. A devastated or destroyed region, town, or building; a ruin. An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product. Something, such as steam, that escapes without being used. Garbage; trash. The undigested residue of food eliminated from the body; excrement. adj.   Regarded or discarded as worthless or useless: waste trimmings. Used as a conveyance or container for refuse: a waste bin. Excreted from the body: waste matter. [Middle English wasten, from Old North French waster, from Latin vāstāre, to make empty, from vāstus, empty; see euə- in Indo-European roots.] Synonyms: These verbs mean to spend or expend without restraint and often to no avail: wasted my inheritance; blew a fortune at the casino; time and money that was consumed in litigation; dissipated their energies in pointless argument; frittering away her entire allowance; squandered his talent on writing jingles. Antonym: save1

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
waste  (v.)

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
waste  (n.)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

waste
adjective
1.	located in a dismal or remote area; desolate; "a desert island"; "a godforsaken wilderness crossroads"; "a wild stretch of land"; "waste places" [syn: godforsaken]
noun
1.	any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted; "they collect the waste once a week"; "much of the waste material is carried off in the sewers"
2.	useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly; "if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste"; "mindless dissipation of natural resources"
3.	the trait of wasting resources; "a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste"; "the wastefulness of missed opportunities" [syn: thriftlessness]
4.	an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert" [syn: barren]
5.	(law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
verb
1.	spend thoughtlessly; throw away; "He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends"; "You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree" [ant: conserve]
2.	use inefficiently or inappropriately; "waste heat"; "waste a joke on an unappreciative audience"
3.	get rid of; "We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer"
4.	run off as waste; "The water wastes back into the ocean"
5.	get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing; "The mafia liquidated the informer"; "the double agent was neutralized" [syn: neutralize]
6.	spend extravagantly; "waste not, want not" [syn: consume]
7.	lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief; "After her husband died, she just pined away" [syn: pine away]
8.	cause to grow thin or weak; "The treatment emaciated him"
9.	cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: lay waste to]
10.	become physically weaker; "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

waste

In addition to the idioms beginning with waste, also see go to waste; haste makes waste; lay waste.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

waste       (wāst)  Pronunciation Key  Noun   An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product. See also hazardous waste, landfill. Verb   To lose or cause to lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor, as by the progressive effects of a disease such as metastatic cancer.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

waste (wāst)
v. wast·ed, wast·ing, wastes
To gradually lose energy, strength, or bodily substance, as from disease. n.
The undigested residue of food eliminated from the body; excrement.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: waste
Function: noun
1 : destruction of or damage to property that is caused by the act or omission of one (as a lessee, mortgagor, or life tenant) having a lesser estate and is usually to the injury of another (as an heir, mortgagee, or remainderman) with an interest in the same property waste>

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ame·lio·rat·ing waste
/&-'mEl-y&-"rA-ti[ng]-/
: waste that leads to improvement of property (as by clearing the way for rebuilding something) called also ameliorative waste

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permissive waste
: waste caused by the failure of a tenant to take ordinary or proper care of the property

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voluntary waste
: waste caused by the intentional commission of a destructive act by a tenant
2 : a reduction of the value of assets (as in a trust) caused by a failure to exercise proper care or sound judgment in managing them; especially : a transfer of corporate assets (as through excessive executive compensation or a merger) for no legitimate business purpose or for less than what a person of ordinary sound business judgment would consider to be adequate consideration waste of corporate assets is the diversion of corporate assets for improper or unnecessary purposes —Michelson v. Duncan, 407 Atlantic Reporter, Second Series 211 (1979)>
NOTE: Waste injures the interests of shareholders.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Waste

Waste\, n. (Phys. Geog.) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Waste

Waste\, a. [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus, influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosti, G. w["u]st, OS. w?sti, D. woest, AS. w[=e]ste. Cf. Vast.]

1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless.

The dismal situation waste and wild. --Milton.

His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into the waste darkness of futurity. --Sir W. Scott.

2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.

But his waste words returned to him in vain. --Spenser.

Not a waste or needless sound, Till we come to holier ground. --Milton.

Ill day which made this beauty waste. --Emerson.

3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.

And strangled with her waste fertility. --Milton.

Waste gate, a gate by which the superfluous water of a reservoir, or the like, is discharged.

Waste paper. See under Paper.

Waste pipe, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous, water or other fluids. Specifically: (a) (Steam Boilers) An escape pipe. See under Escape. (b) (Plumbing) The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl, tub, sink, or the like.

Waste steam. (a) Steam which escapes the air. (b) Exhaust steam.

Waste trap, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Waste

Waste\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Wasting.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F. g[^a]ter to spoil, L. vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr. vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosten, G. w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See Waste, a.]

1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.

Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted, Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.

The Tiber Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds. --Dryden.

2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.

Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. --Num. xiv. 33.

O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.

Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.

Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him. --Robertson.

3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury.

The younger son gathered all together, and . . . wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv. 13.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.

4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.

Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Waste

Waste\, v. i. 1. To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle; to grow less.

The time wasteth night and day. --Chaucer.

The barrel of meal shall not waste. --1 Kings xvii. 14.

But man dieth, and wasteth away. --Job xiv. 10.

2. (Sporting) To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; -- said of a jockey in preparation for a race, etc.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Waste

Waste\, n. [OE. waste; cf. the kindred AS. w?sten, OHG. w?st[=i], wuost[=i], G. w["u]ste. See Waste, a. & v.]

1. The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain; gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a waste of property, time, labor, words, etc. "Waste . . . of catel and of time." --Chaucer.

For all this waste of wealth loss of blood. --Milton.

He will never . . . in the way of waste, attempt us again. --Shak.

Little wastes in great establishments, constantly occurring, may defeat the energies of a mighty capital. --L. Beecher.

2. That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated, uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a wilderness. "The wastes of Nature." --Emerson.

All the leafy nation sinks at last, And Vulcan rides in triumph o'er the waste. --Dryden.

The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is his tomb and his monument. --Bancroft.

3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse. Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of railway cars, etc.

4. (Law) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses, woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or for years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder.

Note: Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to the freehold is a waste. --Blackstone.

5. (Mining) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or filled with refuse.

Syn: Prodigality; diminution; loss; dissipation; destruction; devastation; havoc; desolation; ravage.