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wastage

[wey-stij]
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noun
  1. loss by use, wear, decay, etc.
  2. loss or losses as the result of wastefulness: The annual wastage of time due to illness is appalling.
  3. the action or process of wasting: the steady wastage of erosion.
  4. something that is wasted; waste or waste materials: The river was befouled by factory wastage.
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Origin of wastage

First recorded in 1750–60; waste + -age
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

misuse, diffusion, wastage, squander, dilapidation, misapplication, extravagance, havoc, prodigality, devastation, lavishness, decay, ruin, ravage, exhaustion, loss, desolation, expenditure, dissipation, wastefulness

Examples from the Web for wastage

Historical Examples

  • All the wastage of meat, such as the frozen chips, belonged to the dog that found it.

    White Fang

    Jack London

  • It may be only a further development of the sin of woman, the wastage of her womanhood.

    The Truth About Woman

    C. Gasquoine Hartley

  • I do not know; but even this is better than the wastage of the mother-force in life.

    The Truth About Woman

    C. Gasquoine Hartley

  • There was no wastage and the pipes connecting the tanks were in good condition.

    The Treasure Trail

    Marah Ellis Ryan

  • The wastage from the three mentioned was not uniform, but it was constant.

British Dictionary definitions for wastage

wastage

noun
  1. anything lost by wear or waste
  2. the process of wasting
  3. reduction in size of a workforce by retirement, voluntary resignation, etc (esp in the phrase natural wastage)
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usage

Waste and wastage are to some extent interchangeable, but many people think that wastage should not be used to refer to loss resulting from human carelessness, inefficiency, etc: a waste (not a wastage) of time/money/effort etc
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 wastage

n.

1756, from waste (v.) + -age.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper