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:
But the tension he and his fellow Romanian crewmembers felt took a little while to dissipate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The price effect may dissipate soon, in which case higher rates will start to bite only after inflation has already begun coming down.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 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
When Morocco's energy started to dissipate, it became a contest.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
The air of collective displacement, the impermanence of life in wartime and the gauche personalities of the more recent arrivals tended to dissipate my own sense of not belonging.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
VIX futures can lose dramatically if VIX is declining and their time value premium dissipates.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
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
The negativity dissipates as a young man walks into the clubhouse, baseball cap on backward for the moment, energetic and respectful and joyful and supremely confident.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 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
The mist in the Menagerie slowly dissipates as she searches the tent, finding nothing concealed within it but paper.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
If their stop in Thailand does the trick, any frustration they may feel over their unexpectedly long and tough mission may have dissipated by the time they get home.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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
Troops are now readying for the challenges that the scorching summer might bring, but any worries over their families without heat and light in civilian cities have dissipated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 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
The dust dissipated and there was no more trace of his father.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
“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
For a while, investors cheered the dissipating fog, with the Nasdaq composite surging as much as 2.6%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
He felt the tingle in his skin dissipating.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
