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wasting

8 dictionary results for: Wasting

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

wast·ing

[wey-sting] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	gradually reducing the fullness and strength of the body: a wasting disease.

2.	laying waste; devastating; despoiling: the ravages of a wasting war.

–noun

3.	Geology. mass wasting.

[Origin: 1200–50; ME; see waste, -ing², ing¹

]

—Related forms

wast·ing·ly, adverb

wast·ing·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

waste

[weyst] Pronunciation Key verb, wast·ed, wast·ing, noun, adjective

–verb (used with object)

1.	to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander: to waste money; to waste words.

2.	to fail or neglect to use: to waste an opportunity.

3.	to destroy or consume gradually; wear away: The waves waste the rock of the shore.

4.	to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble: to be wasted by disease or hunger.

5.	to destroy, devastate, or ruin: a country wasted by a long and futile war.

6.	Slang. to kill or murder.

–verb (used without object)

7.	to be consumed, spent, or employed uselessly or without giving full value or being fully utilized or appreciated.

8.	to become gradually consumed, used up, or worn away: A candle wastes in burning.

9.	to become physically worn; lose flesh or strength; become emaciated or enfeebled.

10.	to diminish gradually; dwindle, as wealth, power, etc.: The might of England is wasting.

11.	to pass gradually, as time.

–noun

12.	useless consumption or expenditure; use without adequate return; an act or instance of wasting: The project was a waste of material, money, time, and energy.

13.	neglect, instead of use: waste of opportunity.

14.	gradual destruction, impairment, or decay: the waste and repair of bodily tissue.

15.	devastation or ruin, as from war or fire.

16.	a region or place devastated or ruined: The forest fire left a blackened waste.

17.	anything unused, unproductive, or not properly utilized.

18.	an uncultivated tract of land.

19.	a wild region or tract of land; desolate country, desert, or the like.

20.	an empty, desolate, or dreary tract or extent: a waste of snow.

21.	anything left over or superfluous, as excess material or by-products, not of use for the work in hand: a fortune made in salvaging factory wastes.

22.	remnants, as from the working of cotton, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil, etc.

23.	Physical Geography. material derived by mechanical and chemical disintegration of rock, as the detritus transported by streams, rivers, etc.

24.	garbage; refuse.

25.	wastes, excrement.

–adjective

26.	not used or in use: waste energy; waste talents.

27.	(of land, regions, etc.) wild, desolate, barren, or uninhabited; desert.

28.	(of regions, towns, etc.) in a state of desolation and ruin, as from devastation or decay.

29.	left over or superfluous: to utilize waste products of manufacture.

30.	having served or fulfilled a purpose; no longer of use.

31.	rejected as useless or worthless; refuse: to salvage waste products.

32.	Physiology. pertaining to material unused by or unusable to the organism.

33.	designed or used to receive, hold, or carry away excess, superfluous, used, or useless material (often in combination): a waste pipe; waste container.

34.	Obsolete. excessive; needless.

—Idioms

35.	go to waste, to fail to be used or consumed; be wasted: She hates to see good food go to waste.

36.	lay waste, to devastate; destroy; ruin: Forest fires lay waste thousands of acres yearly.

[Origin: 1150–1200; 1960–65 for def. 6; (adj.) ME < ONF wast (OF g(u)ast) < L vāstus desolate; (v.) ME < ONF waster (OF g(u)aster) < L vāstāre, deriv. of vāstus; (n.) ME < ONF wast(e) (OF g(u)aste), partly < L vāstum, n. use of neut. of vāstus, partly deriv. of waster; ONF w-, OF gu- by influence of c. Frankish *wōsti desolate (c. OHG wuosti)

]

—Related forms

wast·a·ble, adjective

wasteless, adjective

—Synonyms 1. misspend, dissipate, fritter away, expend. 3. erode. 5. ravage, pillage, plunder, sack, spoil, despoil. 10. decline, perish, wane, decay. 12. dissipation. 14. diminution, decline, emaciation, consumption. 15. spoliation, desolation. 19. See desert¹. 24. rubbish, trash. 36. See ravage. 28. ruined, ghostly, destroyed. 29. unused, useless, extra.

—Antonyms 1. save.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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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.
1. To destroy completely.
2. 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.

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.
1. An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product.
2. 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

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

wast·ing (wā'stĭng) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Gradually deteriorating; declining: the wasting process of erosion.
Sapping the strength, energy, or substance of the body; emaciating: a wasting disease.

wast'ing·ly adv.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

wasting
noun
1.	any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease [syn: cachexia]
2.	a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse [syn: atrophy]