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
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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
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to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble.
to be wasted by disease or hunger.
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to destroy, devastate, or ruin.
a country wasted by a long and futile war.
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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.
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to become physically worn; lose flesh or strength; become emaciated or enfeebled.
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to diminish gradually; dwindle, as wealth, power, etc..
The might of England is wasting.
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to pass gradually, as time.
noun
-
wastes
plural
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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.
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remnants, as from the working of cotton, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil, etc.
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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.
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(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
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indigestible food residue
-
-
disintegrated rock material resulting from erosion
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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
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wastesimple
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wastessimple
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have wastedperfect
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has wastedperfect
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am wastingprogressive
-
are wastingprogressive
-
is wastingprogressive
-
have been wastingperfect progressive
-
has been wastingperfect progressive
Past
-
wastedsimple
-
had wastedperfect
-
was wastingprogressive
-
were wastingprogressive
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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
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Natural Resources and the Environment - Introductory
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Earth Science - Middle School
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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:
Food waste has been hauled to at least four landfills, including Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center in Ventura County and El Sobrante Landfill in Riverside County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Plus, Beijing accelerates its buildup in space and a drone maker cleans 28 tons of waste from Mount Everest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
To be sure, Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse – such as providers billing Medicaid for services that are unnecessary or never rendered – are very real problems that cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
"There's the wildlife killed, people are being put in danger and it takes emergency services away. It is a real waste of resources."
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Mama didn’t waste any time getting off the coach and coming to me.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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
This guy is, by the way, completely superfluous to the plot, and wastes a lot of our time before he gets dumped out of it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
As they move through materials, they generate heat and face resistance that wastes energy.
From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026
Serkis’ “Animal Farm” wastes no time confirming suspicions that it’s a watered-down version of Orwell’s dystopic classic.
From Salon ● May 3, 2026
“Eh! My son wastes money on these expensive things,” she said.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Others were clear cases of wasted capital, such as comedy digital token dogecoin or many of the SPACs that failed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
It would be easy to view Phillips' Manchester City career as a story of wasted talent and unfulfilled potential.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
When they took the stage, the band wasted no time exploding into a searing 10-song set led by “That Girl” and including a screeching cover of the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Mora said he didn’t want all that fruit to be wasted so he opted for the giveaway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
“I’m sure you’ll live up to his wasted potential,” she said.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
“Discussions of hospice reform should be focused on first stopping any fraudulent activity from wasting Medicare dollars, which would result in greater savings than those identified in this report.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
“I still said, ‘I already turned it down so you’re wasting your time.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Spirit's batters were guilty of wasting good starts as four of the top five made it past 20 but could not kick on to a contribution like Duckett's.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
“Anticompetitive practices are strong-arming our cities, wasting taxpayer dollars, and leaving firefighters without lifesaving equipment,” Banks said separately.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
“We’re not wasting water on internal toilets, so that’s where all business is done.”
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
