waste
Americanverb (used with object)
-
wastes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wasted,
past participle, past
-
wasting
present participle
-
to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander.
to waste money; to waste words.
- Synonyms:
- expend, fritter away, dissipate, misspend
- Antonyms:
- save
-
to fail or neglect to use.
to waste an opportunity.
-
to destroy or consume gradually; wear away.
The waves waste the rock of the shore.
- Synonyms:
- erode
-
to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble.
to be wasted by disease or hunger.
-
to destroy, devastate, or ruin.
a country wasted by a long and futile war.
-
Slang. to kill or murder.
verb (used without object)
-
wastes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wasted,
past participle, past
-
wasting
present participle
-
to be consumed, spent, or employed uselessly or without giving full value or being fully utilized or appreciated.
-
to become gradually consumed, used up, or worn away.
A candle wastes in burning.
-
to become physically worn; lose flesh or strength; become emaciated or enfeebled.
-
to diminish gradually; dwindle, as wealth, power, etc..
The might of England is wasting.
-
to pass gradually, as time.
noun
-
wastes
plural
-
useless consumption or expenditure; use without adequate return; an act or instance of wasting.
The project was a waste of material, money, time, and energy.
- Synonyms:
- dissipation
-
neglect, instead of use.
waste of opportunity.
-
gradual destruction, impairment, or decay.
the waste and repair of bodily tissue.
- Synonyms:
- consumption, emaciation, decline, diminution
-
devastation or ruin, as from war or fire.
- Synonyms:
- desolation, spoliation
-
a region or place devastated or ruined.
The forest fire left a blackened waste.
-
anything unused, unproductive, or not properly utilized.
-
an uncultivated tract of land.
-
a wild region or tract of land; desolate country, desert, or the like.
-
an empty, desolate, or dreary tract or extent.
a waste of snow.
-
anything left over or superfluous, as excess material or by-products, not of use for the work in hand.
a fortune made in salvaging factory wastes.
-
remnants, as from the working of cotton, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil, etc.
-
Physical Geography. material derived by mechanical and chemical disintegration of rock, as the detritus transported by streams, rivers, etc.
-
garbage; refuse.
-
wastes, excrement.
adjective
-
not used or in use.
waste energy; waste talents.
-
(of land, regions, etc.) wild, desolate, barren, or uninhabited; desert.
-
(of regions, towns, etc.) in a state of desolation and ruin, as from devastation or decay.
-
left over or superfluous.
to utilize waste products of manufacture.
-
having served or fulfilled a purpose; no longer of use.
-
rejected as useless or worthless; refuse.
to salvage waste products.
-
Physiology. pertaining to material unused by or unusable to the organism.
-
designed or used to receive, hold, or carry away excess, superfluous, used, or useless material (often in combination).
a waste pipe; waste container.
-
Obsolete. excessive; needless.
idioms
-
go to waste, to fail to be used or consumed; be wasted.
She hates to see good food go to waste.
-
lay waste, to devastate; destroy; ruin.
Forest fires lay waste thousands of acres yearly.
verb
-
(tr) to use, consume, or expend thoughtlessly, carelessly, or to no avail
-
(tr) to fail to take advantage of
to waste an opportunity
-
to lose or cause to lose bodily strength, health, etc
-
to exhaust or become exhausted
-
(tr) to ravage
-
informal (tr) to murder or kill
I want that guy wasted by tomorrow
noun
-
the act of wasting or state of being wasted
-
a failure to take advantage of something
-
anything unused or not used to full advantage
-
anything or anyone rejected as useless, worthless, or in excess of what is required
-
garbage, rubbish, or trash
-
a land or region that is devastated or ruined
-
a land or region that is wild or uncultivated
-
physiol
-
the useless products of metabolism
-
indigestible food residue
-
-
disintegrated rock material resulting from erosion
-
law reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect, esp by a life-tenant
adjective
-
rejected as useless, unwanted, or worthless
-
produced in excess of what is required
-
not cultivated, inhabited, or productive
waste land
-
-
of or denoting the useless products of metabolism
-
of or denoting indigestible food residue
-
-
destroyed, devastated, or ruined
-
designed to contain or convey waste products
-
to devastate or destroy
-
An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product.
-
See also hazardous waste landfill
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wastesimple
-
wastessimple
-
have wastedperfect
-
has wastedperfect
-
am wastingprogressive
-
are wastingprogressive
-
is wastingprogressive
-
have been wastingperfect progressive
-
has been wastingperfect progressive
Past
-
wastedsimple
-
had wastedperfect
-
was wastingprogressive
-
were wastingprogressive
-
had been wastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of waste
First recorded in 1150–1200; 1960–65 waste for def. 6; (for the adjective) Middle English, from Old North French wast (compare Old French g(u)ast ), from Latin vāstus “desolate, destroyed, empty, immense”; verb and noun derivative of the adjective; cf. vast ( def. )
Explanation
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.”
Vocabulary lists containing waste
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 4
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Natural Resources and the Environment - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Earth Science - Middle School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Stale bread stops being waste and becomes an asset.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
He estimated there were thousands of tonnes of material, which he said looked like "low-grade demolition waste", saying that he had seen tar and lead batteries in amongst the rubble.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
One of their waste products is carbon dioxide—but they emit less than the most efficient natural-gas engines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
It was also uniquely hazardous because waste in dumpsters can include items such as knives, glass, needles, batteries and vermin, Menchaca said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
“Now I shall have to waste part of my salary on clothes, which I hardly need,” she fumed, although it was not really true, for the elbows of her sleeves were worn rather thin.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
It just wastes the strategy — and your money.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
His 13 league goals for Brighton last season came from 12.5 expected goals, a steady return that reflects a striker who finishes at expectation and rarely wastes chances.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
“Remake” has a tragic tale to tell and director Ross McElwee wastes no time revealing its grieving heart.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
Best of all, Wilde wastes no time getting right down to it.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
When inextricably mixed with domestic and other wastes discharged into the same water, these chemicals sometimes defy detection by the methods in ordinary use by purification plants.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
By now, Russell was in the lead, having wasted little time dispensing with Gasly.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Ireland are heavily reliant on Lewis and all-rounder Prendergast, and when the latter fell for 19 after Lewis' knock of 69, there was a worry that their solid platform would be wasted.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Texts lit up my phone this morning from friends who had wasted most of their lives rooting for the Angels: Arte Moreno was finally selling the team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The Post, for its part, wasted no time pushing back.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
“He got the better woman too, while I wasted time, blinded by beauty! But never mind all that; the point is, young man, if you can’t swim, it’s high time you learned!”
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
“I’ve had to become the whistleblower on the board because they’re wasting public monies — and we don‘t have a lot to begin with,” Unger said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
And yet, the film fails to utilize either to its advantage, wasting great talent and a halfway-decent premise on mind-numbing dialogue, repetitive plotting and dour lighting.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
He’s mindful of wasting filament, but small parts don’t tend to generate too much scrap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Although his classmates had been using their phones to get information for their studies, they were also wasting time on social media.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
There isn’t anybody in line behind us—ten in the morning is a bit early for dessert, I guess—but I’m still wasting his time.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
