waste

/weɪst/

/weɪst/

Other forms: wasted; wasting; wastes

If waste is useless, then to waste is to fritter away. Don't waste time putting your waste paper in the waste basket, just chuck it in the recycling bin.

As a noun, waste, meaning “desolate regions” stems from the Old English westen, meaning “a desert, wilderness.” Later, it came to imply a “useless activity,” and even later than that, “refuse matter,” or “trash.” As a verb, waste “devastate, ruin,” comes from the Latin vastare, “to lay waste.” It later adopted the sense of “spend or consume uselessly.” It can also mean “to kill.” The poet E. E. Cummings said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”

Definitions of waste

1. verb

   use inefficiently or inappropriately
   “waste heat”

   “waste a joke on an unappreciative audience”

   type of:

   apply, employ, use, utilise, utilize

   put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose
2. verb

   spend thoughtlessly; throw away
   “He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends”

   synonyms: blow, squander

   blow

   spend lavishly or wastefully on

   antonyms:

   conserve

   use cautiously and frugally

   types:

   burn

   spend (significant amounts of money)

   type of:

   expend, use

   use up or consume fully
3. verb

   spend extravagantly
   “waste not, want not”

   synonyms: consume, squander, ware

   types:

   dissipate, fool, fool away, fritter, fritter away, frivol away, shoot

   spend frivolously and unwisely

   luxuriate, wanton

   become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously

   lavish, shower

   expend profusely; also used with abstract nouns

   overspend

   spend at a high rate

   fling, splurge

   indulge oneself

   type of:

   drop, expend, spend

   pay out
4. noun

   the trait of wasting resources
   synonyms: thriftlessness, wastefulness

   type of:

   improvidence, shortsightedness

   a lack of prudence and care by someone in the management of resources
5. noun

   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”

   synonyms: waste material, waste matter, waste product

   types:

   dross, impurity

   worthless or dangerous material that should be removed

   exhaust, exhaust fumes, fumes

   gases ejected from an engine as waste products

   body waste, excrement, excreta, excretion, excretory product

   waste matter (as urine or sweat but especially feces) discharged from the body

   crud, filth, skank

   any substance considered disgustingly foul or unpleasant

   sewage, sewerage

   waste matter carried away in sewers or drains

   effluent, sewer water, wastewater

   water mixed with waste matter

   food waste, garbage, refuse, scraps

   food that is discarded (as from a kitchen)

   pollutant

   waste matter that contaminates the water or air or soil

   garbage, refuse, rubbish, scrap, trash

   worthless material that is to be disposed of

   slop

   (usually plural) waste water from a kitchen or bathroom or chamber pot that has to be emptied by hand

   toxic industrial waste, toxic waste

   poisonous waste materials; can cause injury (especially by chemical means)

   DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

   an insecticide that is also toxic to animals and humans; banned in the United States since 1972

   CFC, chlorofluorocarbon

   a fluorocarbon with chlorine; formerly used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosol cans

   halon

   a compound in which the hydrogen atoms of a hydrocarbon have been replaced by bromine and other halogen atoms; very stable; used in fire extinguishers although it is thought to release bromine that depletes the ozone layer

   nitrogen oxide

   any of several oxides of nitrogen formed by the action of nitric acid on oxidizable materials; present in car exhausts

   BM, dejection, faecal matter, faeces, fecal matter, feces, ordure, stool

   solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels

   fecula

   excreta (especially of insects)

   wormcast

   cylindrical mass of earth voided by a burrowing earthworm or lugworm

   human waste

   the body wastes of human beings

   urine, water

   liquid excretory product

   barf, puke, vomit, vomitus

   the matter ejected in vomiting

   scrap metal

   discarded metal suitable for reprocessing

   debris, detritus, dust, junk, rubble

   the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up

   litter

   rubbish carelessly dropped or left about (especially in public places)

   guano

   the excrement of sea birds or bats; used as fertilizer

   sulfur dioxide, sulphur dioxide

   a colorless toxic gas (SO2) that occurs in the gases from volcanoes; used in many manufacturing processes and present in industrial emissions; causes acid rain

   type of:

   material, stuff

   the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object
6. noun

   useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly
   “if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste”

   synonyms: dissipation, wastefulness

   types:

   boondoggle

   work of little or no value done merely to look busy

   waste of effort, waste of energy

   a useless effort

   waste of material

   a useless consumption of material

   waste of money

   money spent for inadequate return

   waste of time

   the devotion of time to a useless activity

   extravagance, high life, highlife, lavishness, prodigality

   excessive spending

   squandering

   spending resources lavishly and wastefully

   squandermania

   prodigious squandering (usually by a government)

   type of:

   activity

   any specific behavior
7. noun

   (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
   synonyms: permissive waste

   type of:

   act, deed, human action, human activity

   something that people do or cause to happen
8. verb

   get rid of
   “We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer”

   type of:

   cast aside, cast away, cast out, chuck out, discard, dispose, fling, put away, throw away, throw out, toss, toss away, toss out

   throw or cast away
9. verb

   run off as waste
   “The water wastes back into the ocean”

   synonyms: run off

   type of:

   course, feed, flow, run

   move along, of liquids
10. verb

    lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
    synonyms: languish, pine away

    type of:

    weaken

    become weaker
11. verb

    become physically weaker
    “Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world”

    synonyms: rot

    types:

    gangrene, mortify, necrose, sphacelate

    undergo necrosis

    type of:

    degenerate, deteriorate, devolve, drop

    grow worse
12. verb

    cause to grow thin or weak
    synonyms: emaciate, macerate

    type of:

    debilitate, drain, enfeeble

    make weak
13. verb

    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
    synonyms: desolate, devastate, lay waste to, ravage, scourge

    types:

    ruin

    reduce to ruins

    type of:

    destroy, ruin

    destroy completely; damage irreparably
14. verb

    get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
    synonyms: do in, knock off, liquidate, neutralise, neutralize

    type of:

    kill

    cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly
15. noun

    an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
    “the trackless wastes of the desert”

    synonyms: barren, wasteland

    types:

    heath, heathland

    a tract of level wasteland; uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation

    type of:

    wild, wilderness

    a wild and uninhabited area left in its natural condition
16. adjective

    located in a dismal or remote area; desolate
    “waste places”

    synonyms: godforsaken, wild

    inhospitable

    unfavorable to life or growth