Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web
Related Searches
Synonyms
Nearby Words

waste

 - 11 dictionary results
Rubbish Removed & Hauled
Serving the San Fernando Valley We Fight Poverty - We Work
www.larrytherubbishman.com
Roscoe Roll Off Inc.
Roll Off Trash Dumpster / bins LA County/ Website special price
www.RoscoeRollOff.com
Waste
One Company's Waste Solution Find out how
www.SmartPlanet.com

waste

  [weyst] verb, wast⋅ed, wast⋅ing, noun, adjective
Use waste in a Sentence
–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 desert 1 . 24. rubbish, trash. 36. See ravage. 28. ruined, ghostly, destroyed. 29. unused, useless, extra.

Antonyms:
1. save.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To waste
Rubbish Removed & Hauled
Serving the San Fernando Valley We Fight Poverty - We Work
www.larrytherubbishman.com
Roscoe Roll Off Inc.
Roll Off Trash Dumpster / bins LA County/ Website special price
www.RoscoeRollOff.com
waste   (wāst)   
v.   wast·ed, wast·ing, wastes

v.   tr.

  1. To use, consume, spend, or expend thoughtlessly or carelessly.

  2. To cause to lose energy, strength, or vigor; exhaust, tire, or enfeeble: Disease wasted his body.

  3. 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.

  1. To lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor; become weak or enfeebled: wasting away from an illness.

  2. To pass without being put to use: Time is wasting.

n.  

  1. The act or an instance of wasting or the condition of being wasted: a waste of talent; gone to waste.

  2. A place, region, or land that is uninhabited or uncultivated; a desert or wilderness.

  3. 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.

  5. Garbage; trash.

  6. The undigested residue of food eliminated from the body; excrement.

adj.  

  1. Regarded or discarded as worthless or useless: waste trimmings.

  2. Used as a conveyance or container for refuse: a waste bin.

  3. 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
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
waste

  1. tv.
    to kill someone. (Underworld.) : The mob's triggers sped by in a car and wasted four pushers.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

waste  (v.)
c.1205, "devastate, ravage, ruin," from Anglo-Fr. and O.N.Fr. waster "to spoil, ruin" (O.Fr. guaster), altered (by influence of Frankish *wostjan) from L. vastare "lay waste," from vastus "empty, desolate, waste" (see vain). The word also existed in O.E. as westan. Meaning "to lose strength or health; pine; weaken" is attested from c.1300; the sense of "squander, spend or consume uselessly" is first recorded 1340; meaning "to kill" is from 1964. Wasted "intoxicated" is slang from 1950s. The adj. is recorded from c.1290; waste-water is attested from c.1450; waste-paper first recorded 1585.

waste  (n.)
c.1200, "desolate regions," from O.Fr. wast, from L. vastum, neut. of vastus "waste" (see waste (v.)); replacing O.E. westen, woesten "a desert, wilderness," from the L. word. Meaning "useless expenditure" is recorded from 1297; sense of "refuse matter" is attested from c.1430. Waste basket first recorded 1850.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Legal Dictionary

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>
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
permissive waste
: waste caused by the failure of a tenant to take ordinary or proper care of the property
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.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Cite This Source
Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1waste
Pronunciation: 'wAst
Function: noun
1 : loss through breaking down of bodily tissue
2 wastes pl : bodily waste materials : EXCREMENT

Main Entry: 2waste
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: wast·ed; wast·ing
transitive senses
: to cause to shrink inphysical bulk or strength : EMACIATE waste intransitive senses
: to lose weight, strength,or vitality —often used with away

Main Entry: 3waste
Function: adjective
: excreted from or stored in inert form in a living body as a by-product of vital activity <wastematerials> <waste products>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Cite This Source
Medical Dictionary

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.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Idioms & Phrases

waste

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

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see waste on Thesaurus | Reference
Waste
One Company's Waste Solution Find out how
www.SmartPlanet.com
FacebookTwitterFollow us:
Partner Sites:
Ask AnswersEviteExpediaHotelsHotwireLife123LiveDailyMy Way