waste
/ˈweɪ̯st/ noun, adjective, verb
Also a form of waist
Forms wastes wasting wasted wastest wastedst wasteth
- noun Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- noun Excrement or urine. “The cage was littered with animal waste.”
- noun A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- noun A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- noun A large tract of uncultivated land.
- noun (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
- noun A vast expanse of water.
- noun A disused mine or part of one.
- adjective (MTE, slang, derogatory) Useless and contemptible.
- adjective (now rare) Uncultivated, uninhabited.
- adjective Barren; desert; empty.
- adjective Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
- adjective Superfluous; needless.
- adjective Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
- adjective Unfortunate; disappointing.
- verb (transitive) To devastate; to destroy.
- verb (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate. “We wasted millions of dollars and several years on that project.”
- verb (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
- verb (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- verb (intransitive) To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
Synonyms
devour cack top duppy waste material waste matter waste product wastefulness dissipation thriftlessness barren wasteland permissive waste blow squander run off neutralize neutralise liquidate knock off do in consume ware pine away languish emaciate macerate lay waste to devastate desolate
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English wast, waste (“a waste”, noun), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste (“a waste”), from Frankish *wōstī (“a waste”), from Proto-Germanic *wōstaz, *wōstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen
From Middle English wast, waste (“waste”, adjective), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast (“waste”), from Frankish *wōstī (“waste, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”). Cognate with Old High German wuosti, wuasti (“waste, empty”), German wüst, Old Saxon wōsti (“desolate”), Old English wēste (“waste, barren, desolate, empty”).
From Middle English wasten (“to waste, lay waste”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French waster (“to waste, devastate”) (compare also the variant gaster and French gâter from a related Old French word); the Anglo-Norman form waster was either from Frankish *wōstijan (“to waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *wāsto- (“empty, wasted”), or alternatively from Latin vastāre and influenced by the Frankish; the English word was assisted by similarity to native Middle English westen ("to waste"; > English weest). Cognate with Old High German wuostan, wuastan, wuostjan (“to waste”) (Modern German wüsten), Old English wēstan (“to lay waste, ravage”).
Displaced native Old English essian and strȳndan. Largely overtook Old English forspillan and wēstan.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
- adjective Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
- verb To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
- verb 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.
Etymology [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus, influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosti, G. wüst, OS. w, D. woest, AS. weste. Cf. Vast.]
Etymology [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F. gâter 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. wüsten, AS. westan. See Waste, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “waste”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details