waste
Meanings
noun
- Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- Excrement or urine.
- A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- A large tract of uncultivated land.
- The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
- A vast expanse of water.
- A disused mine or part of one.
- The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
- Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
- Gradual loss or decay.
- A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
adj
- Useless and contemptible.
adj
- Uncultivated, uninhabited.
- Barren; desert; empty.
- Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
- Superfluous; needless.
- Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
- Unfortunate; disappointing.
verb
- To devastate; to destroy.
- To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate.
- To kill; to murder.
- 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.
- To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
- To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
- To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”).
Synonyms
Related words
Derived words
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