Definitions for: Waste


[n] useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly; "if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste"; "mindless dissipation of natural resources"
[n] (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
[n] the trait of wasting resources; "a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste"; "the wastefulness of missed opportunities"
[n] an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"
[n] any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted; "they collect the waste once a week"; "much of the waste material is carried off in the sewers"
[adj] located in a dismal or remote area; desolate; "a desert island"; "a godforsaken wilderness crossroads"; "a wild stretch of land"; "waste places"
[adj] disposed of as useless; "waste paper"
[v] waste away; "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world"
[v] devastate or ravage; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion"
[v] cause to grow thin or weak; "The treatment emaciated him"
[v] lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief; "After her husband died, she just pined away"
[v] spend extravagantly; "waste not, want not"
[v] use inefficiently or inappropriately; "waste heat"; "waste a joke on an unappreciative audience"
[v] get rid of; kill; "The mafia liquidated the informer"
[v] run off as waste; "The water wastes back into the ocean"
[v] get rid of; "We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer"
[v] spend thoughtlessly; throw away; "He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends"



Webster (1913) Definition: Waste, n. (Phys. Geog.)
Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the
land, carried by streams to the sea.


Waste, a. [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus,
influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosti, G.
w["u]st, OS. w?sti, D. woest, AS. w[=e]ste. Cf. Vast.]
1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary;
dismal; gloomy; cheerless.

The dismal situation waste and wild. --Milton.

His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into
the waste darkness of futurity. --Sir W.
Scott.

2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse;
rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.

But his waste words returned to him in vain.
--Spenser.

Not a waste or needless sound, Till we come to
holier ground. --Milton.

Ill day which made this beauty waste. --Emerson.

3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.

And strangled with her waste fertility. --Milton.

Waste gate, a gate by which the superfluous water of a
reservoir, or the like, is discharged.

Waste paper. See under Paper.

Waste pipe, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous,
water or other fluids. Specifically:
(a) (Steam Boilers) An escape pipe. See under Escape.
(b) (Plumbing) The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl,
tub, sink, or the like.

Waste steam.
(a) Steam which escapes the air.
(b) Exhaust steam.

Waste trap, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink.


Waste, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wasted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Wasting.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F.
g[^a]ter 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.
w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See Waste, a.]
1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.

Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.

The Tiber Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful
grounds. --Dryden.

2. 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.

O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye
none! --Milton.

Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and
pain. --Milton.

Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of
age daily grew on him. --Robertson.

3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ
prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to
useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause
to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury.

The younger son gathered all together, and . . .
wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv.
13.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And
waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.

4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate,
voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc.,
to go to decay.

Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.


Waste, v. i.
1. To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength,
value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle;
to grow less.

The time wasteth night and day. --Chaucer.

The barrel of meal shall not waste. --1 Kings
xvii. 14.

But man dieth, and wasteth away. --Job xiv. 10.

2. (Sporting) To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; --
said of a jockey in preparation for a race, etc.


Waste, n. [OE. waste; cf. the kindred AS. w?sten, OHG.
w?st[=i], wuost[=i], G. w["u]ste. See Waste, a. & v.]
1. The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a
squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or
expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain;
gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a
waste of property, time, labor, words, etc. ``Waste . . .
of catel and of time.'' --Chaucer.

For all this waste of wealth loss of blood.
--Milton.

He will never . . . in the way of waste, attempt us
again. --Shak.

Little wastes in great establishments, constantly
occurring, may defeat the energies of a mighty
capital. --L. Beecher.

2. That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated,
uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an
unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a
wilderness. ``The wastes of Nature.'' --Emerson.

All the leafy nation sinks at last, And Vulcan rides
in triumph o'er the waste. --Dryden.

The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is
his tomb and his monument. --Bancroft.

3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse.
Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting
from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used
for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of
railway cars, etc.

4. (Law) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses,
woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or for
years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in
reversion or remainder.

Note: Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or
permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of
necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to
the freehold is a waste. --Blackstone.

5. (Mining) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant
space or filled with refuse.

Syn: Prodigality; diminution; loss; dissipation; destruction;
devastation; havoc; desolation; ravage.

Synonyms: barren, blow, cast-off(a), consume, desert, desolate, devastate, discarded, dissipation, do in, emaciate, godforsaken, inhospitable, junked, knock off, languish, lay waste to, liquidate, macerate, permissive waste, pine away, ravage, rot, run off, scrap(a), squander, squander, thriftlessness, useless, ware, waste material, waste matter, waste product, wastefulness, wastefulness, wasteland, wild

Antonyms: conserve, economise, economize, husband

See Also: act, activity, apply, body waste, burn, cast aside, cast away, cast out, chuck out, course, crud, debilitate, degenerate, destroy, deteriorate, discard, dispose, dissipate, drain, drop, drop, dross, effluent, employ, enfeeble, excrement, excreta, excretion, excretory product, exhaust, exhaust fumes, expend, expend, extravagance, filth, fling, flow, food waste, fool, fool away, fritter, fritter away, frivol away, fumes, gangrene, garbage, heath, heathland, high life, highlife, human action, human activity, improvidence, impurity, kill, lavishness, luxuriate, material, mortify, necrose, pollutant, prodigality, put away, refuse, rubbish, ruin, run, scraps, sewage, sewer water, sewerage, shoot, shortsightedness, skank, spend, sphacelate, squandering, stuff, throw away, throw out, toss, toss away, toss out, toxic industrial waste, toxic waste, trash, use, use, utilise, utilize, wanton, waste of effort, waste of energy, waste of material, waste of money, waste of time, wastewater, weaken, wild, wilderness

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