wastrel

[wey-struh l]

See more synonyms for wastrel on Thesaurus.com

noun

a wasteful person; spendthrift.
Chiefly British.
1. refuse; waste.
2. a waif; abandoned child.
3. an idler or good-for-nothing.

Origin of wastrel

First recorded in 1580–90; waste + -rel

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for wastrel

rake, vagrant, waster, idler, vagabond, spendthrift, profligate, squanderer

Examples from the Web for wastrel

Historical Examples of wastrel

And yon riff-raff, his spitten picter, is no'but some wastrel merry-begot.
A Son of Hagar
Sir Hall Caine
A wastrel, a roisterer by night, a spendthrift, and a thief!
The Pagan Madonna
Harold MacGrath
It was only then that he realized fully the merits of the wastrel Phineas McPhail.
The Rough Road
William John Locke
Drunkenness and an iron social system manufactured the criminal, the wastrel, the lunatic, and we dealt with the waste product.
Christianity and Problems of To-day: Lectures Delivered Before Lake Forest College on the Foundation of the Late William Bross
John Huston Finley
After all, he is a pauper and a wastrel, and he has not the honour of bearing our Name.
The Lady of the Shroud
Bram Stoker

British Dictionary definitions for wastrel

wastrel

noun

a wasteful person; spendthrift; prodigal
an idler or vagabond

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 wastrel

"spendthrift, idler," 1847, from waste (v.) + pejorative suffix -rel.