dissipate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
dissipates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dissipated,
past participle, past
-
dissipating
present participle
-
to scatter in various directions; disperse; dispel.
- Antonyms:
- unite
-
to spend or use wastefully or extravagantly; squander; deplete.
to dissipate one's talents; to dissipate a fortune on high living.
verb (used without object)
-
dissipates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dissipated,
past participle, past
-
dissipating
present participle
verb
-
to exhaust or be exhausted by dispersion
-
(tr) to scatter or break up
-
(intr) to indulge in the pursuit of pleasure
Synonym Usage
See scatter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dissipatesimple
-
dissipatessimple
-
have dissipatedperfect
-
has dissipatedperfect
-
am dissipatingprogressive
-
are dissipatingprogressive
-
is dissipatingprogressive
-
have been dissipatingperfect progressive
-
has been dissipatingperfect progressive
Past
-
dissipatedsimple
-
had dissipatedperfect
-
was dissipatingprogressive
-
were dissipatingprogressive
-
had been dissipatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dissipate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin dissipātus (past participle of dissipāre, dissupāre “to scatter”); see -ate 1
Explanation
To dissipate is to disperse or fade away — as a bad smell will dissipate (usually) if you wait long enough. Dissipate can also mean “spend or use wastefully.” If you win the lottery, you might suddenly find yourself with a group of new friends encouraging you to dissipate your money (on them). Note that dissipate can be used with or without an object: "Once you dissipate your wealth, your new group of friends will dissipate without a trace."
Vocabulary lists containing dissipate
List 1
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Night
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The Lightning Thief
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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:
Reynolds’ impostor syndrome didn’t dissipate once she got to set, particularly as Episode 2 pits Alice against Rebecca.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
“The pattern keeps repeating—initial enthusiasm when negotiations appear promising, only for that optimism to dissipate just as quickly,” analysts at ING said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Bertha is forecast to weaken back to a tropical depression on Thursday and may dissipate by the end of the week as it nears the Texas coast.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
“The oil shock’s effect on prices may dissipate soon, in which case raising rates may only begin to bite after inflation has started coming back down,” Waller noted.
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
They sat like that, in perfect silence, until whatever magic had filled the air seemed to dissipate and the dying fire turned to glowing orange embers in the dirt.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Soccer’s governing body takes the heat, making a bet that once games begin and international mania takes over, the fury dissipates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Additionally, Goldman Sachs predicts that central bank demand will remain a fundamental pillar of support, averaging about 60 metric tons monthly, once price volatility dissipates.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 2, 2026
Boron arsenide has the potential to revolutionize electronics and semiconductor technology by providing a material that both dissipates heat effectively and performs as a high-quality semiconductor.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2025
“While California enjoys a high GDP, it dissipates the effective purchasing power through high and increasing costs of living,” the California Center for Jobs and the Economy observed after the latest announcement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2025
As I struggle to get up, the crowd around me slowly dissipates.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
"The spirit of Anchorage has dissipated," said Russian political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov -- close to the ruling elite -- in August.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Incident traffic has dissipated substantially in the past years, it noted, with 45 incidents reported in 2024, 19 in 2025, and three since the beginning of 2026.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
If there was any bad blood between Paxton and Middleton over these clashes, it seems to have dissipated in the years since.
From Salon ● May 23, 2026
For three weeks, McFarland and Brune followed short-lived storms that dissipated quickly, leaving them without useful data.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 21, 2026
Feeling a swell of nausea, Louie slowed and slid out a bit, and the stench dissipated.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
Power-sector demand will start the week lower with heat in the south dissipating and Texas even trending toward cooler than normal for mid-July, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
“You can kind of feel people’s anxiety dissipating throughout the day,” Kai says, “so that by the time it’s dinner, everyone’s super comfortable with each other.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
While the colder climate of space holds appeal for some backers of the galactic data-center vision, “there’s no airflow,” Huang noted, which could present challenges when it comes to dissipating heat.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026
"The gas behaves like a perfect conductor; even though countless collisions occur between the atoms, quantities like mass and energy flow freely, without dissipating into the system."
From Science Daily ● Jan. 7, 2026
The mist was dissipating quickly, allowing the sun—in streaks and dazzling, abrupt splashes—to shine through.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
