waste

waste [wāst]

vt.

wasted, wasting [ME wasten < NormFr waster < L vastare, to lay waste, devastate (< vastus: see VAST): infl. by Gmc * wostjan > OHG wuosten]

1. to destroy; devastate; ruin

2. to wear away; consume gradually; use up

3. to make weak, feeble, or emaciated; wear away the strength, vigor, or life of [a man wasted by age and disease]

4. to use up or spend without real need, gain, or purpose; squander

5. to fail to take proper advantage of [to waste an opportunity ]

☆ 6. Slang to kill, usually with violence; esp., to murder

vi.

1. to lose strength, health, vigor, flesh, etc., as by disease; become weak or enfeebled: often with away

2. to be used up or worn down gradually; become smaller or fewer by gradual loss

3. Now Rare to pass or be spent: said of time

4. to be wasted, or not put to full or proper use

adj.

[ME wast < NormFr < L vastus: see VAST]

1. uncultivated or uninhabited; wild; barren; desolate

2. left over, superfluous, refuse, or no longer of use [a waste product]

3. produced in excess of what is or can be used [waste energy]

4. excreted from the body as useless or superfluous material: said as of feces or urine

5. used to carry off or hold waste or refuse [a waste pipe, wastebasket]

n.

[ME < NormFr < the adj.; also in part < L vastum, neut. of vastus]

1. uncultivated or uninhabited land, as a desert or wilderness

2.

a) a desolate, uncultivated, or devastated stretch, tract, or area

b) a vast expanse, as of the sea

3. a wasting or being wasted; specif.,

a) a useless or profitless spending or consuming; squandering, as of money or time

b) a failure to take advantage (of something)

c) a gradual loss, decrease, or destruction by use, wear, decay, deterioration, etc.

4. useless, superfluous, or discarded material, as ashes, garbage or sewage

5. matter excreted from the body, as feces or urine

6. cotton fiber or yarn left over from the process of milling, used for wiping machinery, packing bearings, etc.

7. Obs. ruin or devastation, as by war or fire

8. Physical Geog. material derived by land erosion or disintegration of rock, and carried to the sea by rivers and streams

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go to waste

to be or become wasted

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lay waste to or lay waste

to destroy; devastate; make desolate

SYN.- WASTE, in this connection, is the general word for any stretch of uncultivable, hence uninhabitable, land; a DESERT² is a barren, arid, usually sandy tract of land; BADLANDS is applied to a barren, hilly waste where rapid erosion has cut the soft rocks into fantastic shapes; WILDERNESS refers to an uninhabited waste where a lack of paths or trails makes it difficult to find one's way, specif. to such a region thickly covered with trees and underbrush