verb
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to spend wastefully or extravagantly; dissipate
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an obsolete word for scatter
noun
Related Words
See spend.
Other Word Forms
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.
The real message may be this: “Don’t Squander It.”
From New York Times • Dec. 21, 2011
Squander "the capital represented by living nature" and you "threaten life itself".
From The Guardian • Mar. 27, 2011
Squander more, and people will start to laugh.
From The Guardian • Nov. 21, 2010
Oh Peace! with thee I love to wander, But wait till I have showed up Lady Squander, And now I've seen her up the stair, Oh Peace!—but here comes Captain Hare.
From The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood by Hood, Thomas
Squander it as you please without accounting to me—only to your own consciences,” and he laughed and rose to show her out of his private office.
From The Corner House Girls How they moved to Milton, what they found, and what they did by Hill, Grace Brooks
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.
