WASTING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Wasting

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/wˈeɪstɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Waste v. t. (past & past part. wasted; pres. part. wasting)

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." "The Tiber Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds."

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." "O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!" "Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain." "Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him."

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

4.

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

Synonyms: 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; commonly used with away. "The time wasteth night and day." "The barrel of meal shall not waste." "But man dieth, and wasteth away."

2.

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

adjective

Wasting adj. Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a wasting disease; a wasting fortune.

Wasting palsy (Med.), progressive muscular atrophy. See under Progressive.

See images of 'Wasting'

Etymology of 'Wasting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wasting" Quotes from Famous Books

... from near female relatives of that young gentleman. I once sent a kind of encyclical letter to the whole family connection; but as the delusion under which they labor is still common, and often leads to the wasting of time, the contempt of honest study or humble labor, and the misapplication of intelligence not so far below mediocrity as to be incapable of affording a respectable return when employed in the proper direction, I thought this picture from life might ...

— The Guardian Angel • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... the doom Of spirits of my order to be racked 150 In life, to wear their hearts out, and consume Their days in endless strife, and die alone; Then future thousands crowd around their tomb, And pilgrims come from climes where they have known The name of him—who now is but a name, And wasting homage o'er the sullen stone, Spread his—by him unheard, unheeded—fame; And mine at least hath cost me dear: to die Is nothing; but to wither thus—to tame My mind down from its own infinity— 160 To live in narrow ways with little men, A common sight to every ...

— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... State association won't do the foolish thing of wasting your time in asking the legislature to pass a law granting "presidential" suffrage to women. Our chances in your State have been postponed, if not absolutely killed, because of municipal suffrage, and now if you should induce your legislature to give ...

— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... near the place on the day specified. So it would have gone hard with our Doctor, had not his Honour called the jury's attention to the discrepancies in this witness's evidence; and when Dr. Mulhaus was acquitted, delivered a stinging reproof to the magistrates for wasting public time by sending such a trumpery case to a jury. But, on the other hand, Dr. Mulhaus' charge of assault with intent fell dead; so that neither party had much ...

— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley

... argued by a writer of this class, that those wasting incursions of the Northmen which must have been such terrible plagues to the southern and western countries of Europe, ceased in consequence of their conversion to Christianity; for that, under the humanizing influence of religion, they staid at home, and cultivated ...

— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

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