squander

[skwon-der]

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verb (used with object)

to spend or use (money, time, etc.) extravagantly or wastefully (often followed by away).

to scatter.

noun

extravagant or wasteful expenditure.

Origin of squander

First recorded in 1585–95; origin uncertain

Related formssquan·der·er, nounsquan·der·ing·ly, adverbre·squan·der, verb (used with object)un·squan·dered, adjective

Synonyms for squander

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR squander ON THESAURUS.COM

1. waste, dissipate, lavish. See spend.

Antonyms for squander

1. save.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for squander

blow, misuse, expend, waste, lavish, trifle, consume, spend, dissipate, misspend, scatter, frivol

Examples from the Web for squander

Contemporary Examples of squander

We need to tell our politicians to not squander our heritage.
Honeywell CEO to Washington: Don’t Squander Our Heritage
Dave Cote
October 18, 2013
On the other hand, if we let fear carry the day, we will squander another key moment to move forward together.
Democrats Disagree on Fracking, and It's Starting to Show
Ilana Glazer
April 26, 2013
Do we scale up effective intervention now and see a payoff in the next few years, or squander that opportunity?
HIV/AIDS Funding Is in Jeopardy
Matthew Zeitlin
December 1, 2012
I never knew him to take his time, squander words to be merely decorous.
Christopher Hitchens Eulogized by Roya Hakakian
Roya Hakakian
December 16, 2011
But he has chosen to squander them in ways that have offended me.
America's Bad Boy Chef
Jacob Bernstein
June 13, 2010

Historical Examples of squander

What then have you done with the sums given you from infancy to squander?
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson
Then he'll get a kind of maggot in the brain, and squander every sixpence he can lay hands on.
Love and Lucy
Maurice Henry Hewlett
There's no fun in spendin' money, seems to me, unless you squander it reckless.
Mary Louise in the Country
L. Frank Baum (AKA Edith Van Dyne)
But now he was three years weaker, and he had no more money to squander.
In a Little Town
Rupert Hughes
I also squander it on follies, but on follies of purely home growth.
A Hungarian Nabob
Maurus Jkai

British Dictionary definitions for squander

squander

verb (tr)

to spend wastefully or extravagantly; dissipate

an obsolete word for scatter

noun

rare extravagance or dissipation

Derived Formssquanderer, noun

Word Origin for squander

C16: of unknown origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for squander

1580s (implied in squandering), "to spend recklessly or prodigiously," of unknown origin; Shakespeare used it 1593 in "Merchant of Venice" with a sense of "to be scattered over a wide area." Squander-bug, a British symbol of reckless extravagance and waste during war-time shortages, represented as a devilish insect, was introduced January 1943 by the National Savings Committee. In U.S., Louis Ludlow coined squanderlust (1935) for the tendency of government bureaucracies to spend much money.