squander
Americanverb
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to spend wastefully or extravagantly; dissipate
-
an obsolete word for scatter
noun
Synonym Usage
See spend.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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squandersimple
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squanderssimple
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have squanderedperfect
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has squanderedperfect
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am squanderingprogressive
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are squanderingprogressive
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is squanderingprogressive
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have been squanderingperfect progressive
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has been squanderingperfect progressive
Past
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squanderedsimple
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had squanderedperfect
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was squanderingprogressive
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were squanderingprogressive
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had been squanderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of squander
First recorded in 1585–95; origin uncertain
Explanation
To squander means to spend extravagantly, thoughtlessly, or wastefully. If you need to save for college, don't squander your income on nightly sushi dinners. Squander used to mean scatter, and the way we use it now implies throwing something (like money) all over the place. You can squander time as well as money. If you have a big deadline but you are chatting away or looking at social networking sites, you are squandering your time. If you have an opportunity to play for a major league baseball team but show up late to tryouts and criticize the coach, you have probably squandered your chance.
Vocabulary lists containing squander
Fahrenheit 451
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Touching Spirit Bear
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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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:
Twelve months later, she reached another Melbourne final - and a flurry of mistakes saw her squander a break lead in the deciding set against Elena Rybakina.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
After losing in straight sets to Rishvanth Krishna from Irvine University in last year’s final, Huarte was not about to squander his second chance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
India must not squander money trying to beat OpenAI or DeepSeek, officials say, but should instead find cost-effective ways to deploy AI usefully and build an AI-services business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
You will respect your stepdaughter’s position by excising her from the trust, while ensuring you don’t leave a lot of swag for your stepson to squander.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 20, 2025
“I guess it is your life to squander, but I don’t have to watch.”
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Carrie-Anne Moss of “The Matrix” makes for an ideal veteran Jedi, but in its first misstep, “The Acolyte” squanders that opportunity right out of the gate, setting viewers up for disappointment.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
Riseborough plays a single mom from West Texas who resolves to “have a better life” after winning a $190,000 lottery prize but instead squanders her winnings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2023
Trym knows too well how the human touch squanders a wild animal’s dignity.
From Slate ● Dec. 24, 2022
Food waste not only squanders natural resources, money and effort, it degrades the environment.
From Salon ● Nov. 19, 2022
I’m just the pretty mischief-maker who squanders the dollars, and by and by, when self-pity sets in, they find there is a mutual bond of admiration and sympathy.
From The Gorgeous Girl by Nalbro Bartley
For a company that has owned a pioneering AI lab since 2014 and has proclaimed itself “AI-first” since 2016, Google seems to have squandered an early lead, experts say.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Fritz squandered a pair of match points at 40-15 and gave himself another with a booming forehand.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
The German was criticised for his substitutions as England squandered a 1-0 lead late on, but says he intends to stay to lead the Three Lions into Euro 2028.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Andy Pages squandered a potential scoring opportunity when he was caught stealing in the sixth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
After a long and bloody encounter in which something like 50,000 casualties were incurred, the Union troops routed the Confederates—but then squandered the best opportunity they’d yet had to smash General Lee’s army decisively.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
I can definitely understand why there might not be, let’s say, a surplus of empathy for a privileged young man carelessly and repeatedly squandering his expensive education.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
The African team took the lead and had chances to extend it, but ultimately paid dearly for squandering those opportunities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2026
However, in the tie-break, Sinner upped his first serves and after squandering the first of two set points, an Alcaraz double fault gave him the initiative in the match.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
We are squandering that advantage arguing about whether to peel guardrails off jail-breakable systems and blacklisting the companies that build them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
The passenger pigeon remained an emblem of natural bounty, but now it also represented the squandering of that bounty.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
