waste
to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander: to waste money; to waste words.
to fail or neglect to use: to waste an opportunity.
to destroy or consume gradually; wear away: The waves waste the rock of the shore.
to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble: to be wasted by disease or hunger.
to destroy, devastate, or ruin: a country wasted by a long and futile war.
Slang. to kill or murder.
to be consumed, spent, or employed uselessly or without giving full value or being fully utilized or appreciated.
to become gradually consumed, used up, or worn away: A candle wastes in burning.
to become physically worn; lose flesh or strength; become emaciated or enfeebled.
to diminish gradually; dwindle, as wealth, power, etc.: The might of England is wasting.
to pass gradually, as time.
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.
neglect, instead of use: waste of opportunity.
gradual destruction, impairment, or decay: the waste and repair of bodily tissue.
devastation or ruin, as from war or fire.
a region or place devastated or ruined: The forest fire left a blackened waste.
anything unused, unproductive, or not properly utilized.
an uncultivated tract of land.
a wild region or tract of land; desolate country, desert, or the like.
an empty, desolate, or dreary tract or extent: a waste of snow.
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.
remnants, as from the working of cotton, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil, etc.
Physical Geography. material derived by mechanical and chemical disintegration of rock, as the detritus transported by streams, rivers, etc.
garbage; refuse.
wastes, excrement.
not used or in use: waste energy; waste talents.
(of land, regions, etc.) wild, desolate, barren, or uninhabited; desert.
(of regions, towns, etc.) in a state of desolation and ruin, as from devastation or decay.
left over or superfluous: to utilize waste products of manufacture.
having served or fulfilled a purpose; no longer of use.
rejected as useless or worthless; refuse: to salvage waste products.
Physiology. pertaining to material unused by or unusable to the organism.
designed or used to receive, hold, or carry away excess, superfluous, used, or useless material (often in combination): a waste pipe; waste container.
Obsolete. excessive; needless.
Idioms about waste
go to waste, to fail to be used or consumed; be wasted: She hates to see good food go to waste.
lay waste, to devastate; destroy; ruin: Forest fires lay waste thousands of acres yearly.
Origin of waste
1synonym study For waste
Other words for waste
1 | misspend, dissipate, fritter away, expend |
3 | erode |
5 | ravage, pillage, plunder, sack, spoil, despoil |
10 | decline, ebb, wane, decay |
12 | dissipation |
14 | diminution, decline, emaciation, consumption |
15 | spoliation, desolation |
24 | rubbish, trash |
28 | ruined, destroyed |
29 | unused, useless, extra |
Opposites for waste
Other words from waste
- wast·a·ble, adjective
- wasteless, adjective
- outwaste, verb (used with object), out·wast·ed, out·wast·ing.
- un·wast·a·ble, adjective
Words that may be confused with waste
- waist, waste
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for waste
/ (weɪst) /
(tr) to use, consume, or expend thoughtlessly, carelessly, or to no avail
(tr) to fail to take advantage of: to waste an opportunity
(when intr, often foll by away) to lose or cause to lose bodily strength, health, etc
to exhaust or become exhausted
(tr) to ravage
(tr) informal to murder or kill: I want that guy wasted by tomorrow
the act of wasting or state of being wasted
a failure to take advantage of something
anything unused or not used to full advantage
anything or anyone rejected as useless, worthless, or in excess of what is required
garbage, rubbish, or trash
a land or region that is devastated or ruined
a land or region that is wild or uncultivated
physiol
the useless products of metabolism
indigestible food residue
disintegrated rock material resulting from erosion
law reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect, esp by a life-tenant
rejected as useless, unwanted, or worthless
produced in excess of what is required
not cultivated, inhabited, or productive: waste land
of or denoting the useless products of metabolism
of or denoting indigestible food residue
destroyed, devastated, or ruined
designed to contain or convey waste products
lay waste to devastate or destroy
Origin of waste
1Derived forms of waste
- wastable, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for waste
[ wāst ]
An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product. See also hazardous waste landfill.
To lose or cause to lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor, as by the progressive effects of a disease such as metastatic cancer.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with waste
In addition to the idioms beginning with waste
- waste away
- waste not, want not
- waste one's breath
also see:
- go to waste
- haste makes waste
- lay waste
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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