waste

American  

[weyst] / weɪst /

verb (used with object)

• wastes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wasted,
  past participle,  past
• wasting
  present participle

1. 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

2. to fail or neglect to use.

   to waste an opportunity.

3. to destroy or consume gradually; wear away.

   The waves waste the rock of the shore.

   Synonyms:

   erode

4. to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble.

   to be wasted by disease or hunger.

5. to destroy, devastate, or ruin.

   a country wasted by a long and futile war.

   Synonyms:

   despoil, spoil, sack, plunder, pillage, ravage

6. Slang. to kill or murder.

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verb (used without object)

• wastes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wasted,
  past participle,  past
• wasting
  present participle

1. to be consumed, spent, or employed uselessly or without giving full value or being fully utilized or appreciated.

2. to become gradually consumed, used up, or worn away.

   A candle wastes in burning.

3. to become physically worn; lose flesh or strength; become emaciated or enfeebled.

4. to diminish gradually; dwindle, as wealth, power, etc..

   The might of England is wasting.

   Synonyms:

   decay, wane, ebb, decline

5. to pass gradually, as time.

noun

• wastes
  plural

1. 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

2. neglect, instead of use.

   waste of opportunity.

3. gradual destruction, impairment, or decay.

   the waste and repair of bodily tissue.

   Synonyms:

   consumption, emaciation, decline, diminution

4. devastation or ruin, as from war or fire.

   Synonyms:

   desolation, spoliation

5. a region or place devastated or ruined.

   The forest fire left a blackened waste.

6. anything unused, unproductive, or not properly utilized.

7. an uncultivated tract of land.

8. a wild region or tract of land; desolate country, desert, or the like.

9. an empty, desolate, or dreary tract or extent.

   a waste of snow.

10. 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.

11. remnants, as from the working of cotton, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil, etc.

12. Physical Geography. material derived by mechanical and chemical disintegration of rock, as the detritus transported by streams, rivers, etc.

13. garbage; refuse.

    Synonyms:

    trash, rubbish

14. wastes, excrement.

adjective

1. not used or in use.

   waste energy; waste talents.

2. (of land, regions, etc.) wild, desolate, barren, or uninhabited; desert.

3. (of regions, towns, etc.) in a state of desolation and ruin, as from devastation or decay.

4. left over or superfluous.

   to utilize waste products of manufacture.

   Synonyms:

   extra, useless, unused

5. having served or fulfilled a purpose; no longer of use.

6. rejected as useless or worthless; refuse.

   to salvage waste products.

7. Physiology. pertaining to material unused by or unusable to the organism.

8. designed or used to receive, hold, or carry away excess, superfluous, used, or useless material (often in combination).

   a waste pipe; waste container.

9. Obsolete. excessive; needless.

idioms

1. go to waste, to fail to be used or consumed; be wasted.

   She hates to see good food go to waste.

2. lay waste, to devastate; destroy; ruin.

   Forest fires lay waste thousands of acres yearly.

waste British  

/ weɪst /

verb

1. (tr) to use, consume, or expend thoughtlessly, carelessly, or to no avail

2. (tr) to fail to take advantage of

   to waste an opportunity

3. to lose or cause to lose bodily strength, health, etc

4. to exhaust or become exhausted

5. (tr) to ravage

6. informal (tr) to murder or kill

   I want that guy wasted by tomorrow

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noun

1. the act of wasting or state of being wasted

2. a failure to take advantage of something

3. anything unused or not used to full advantage

4. anything or anyone rejected as useless, worthless, or in excess of what is required

5. garbage, rubbish, or trash

6. a land or region that is devastated or ruined

7. a land or region that is wild or uncultivated

8. physiol

   1. the useless products of metabolism

   2. indigestible food residue

9. disintegrated rock material resulting from erosion

10. law reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect, esp by a life-tenant

adjective

1. rejected as useless, unwanted, or worthless

2. produced in excess of what is required

3. not cultivated, inhabited, or productive

   waste land

4. 1. of or denoting the useless products of metabolism

   2. of or denoting indigestible food residue

5. destroyed, devastated, or ruined

6. designed to contain or convey waste products

7. to devastate or destroy

waste Scientific  

/ wāst /

1. An unusable or unwanted substance or material, such as a waste product.

2. See also hazardous waste landfill

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1. To lose or cause to lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor, as by the progressive effects of a disease such as metastatic cancer.

waste More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing waste

• go to waste
• haste makes waste
• lay waste

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Synonym Usage

See desert ¹. See ravage.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• outwaste
  verb (used with object)
• unwastable
  adjective
• wastable
  adjective
• wasteless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wastes
  plural

Participles

• wasting
  present
• wasted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• waste
  simple
• wastes
  simple
• have wasted
  perfect
• has wasted
  perfect
• am wasting
  progressive
• are wasting
  progressive
• is wasting
  progressive
• have been wasting
  perfect progressive
• has been wasting
  perfect progressive

Past

• wasted
  simple
• had wasted
  perfect
• was wasting
  progressive
• were wasting
  progressive
• had been wasting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will waste
  simple
• will have wasted
  perfect
• will be wasting
  progressive
• will have been wasting
  perfect progressive

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.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

waste wastes wasted wasting

Exercise may also increase the quality of deep sleep and enhance slow wave activity associated with brain waste clearance.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

“You can only find it in King’s Landing. It sustains itself on the waste of other creatures. It’s beautiful.”

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

Four Star Chemical and American Labs operated in the late 1970s and 1980s at 5701 Compton Ave. handling hazardous waste.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

VU researcher Dr. James Broatch led the analysis, which examined how exercise may influence the glymphatic system, a brain waste clearance pathway that is especially active during sleep.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

‘I would have preferred it,’ said Fin-Kedinn, ‘if you’d used water instead of broth. That was a waste of good food.’

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

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

“We believe Meta’s strategy diffusion wastes shareholder capital,” she wrote.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

As they move through materials, they generate heat and face resistance that wastes energy.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

“And all of those other days, like Friday and Saturday and Sunday … are just big wastes of ti-ime!”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

And the greatest of them, Balerion, the Black Dread, could have swallowed an aurochs whole, or even one of the hairy mammoths said to roam the cold wastes beyond the Port of Ibben.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

"Victory won't mean that questions about Farage or Reform's finances will go away, so it seems most likely it will be a wasted summer for everyone," he added.

From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026

Angel City hasn’t been winning, but they doubled the staff and wasted no time setting up a sizable new performance center at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

On an album packed with sonic and lyrical detail, every gesture here is considered and nothing is wasted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

Twenty-five years after “Is This It,” the Strokes are as big as they’ve ever been — and not just among old heads eager to relive the wasted glamour of the early-2000s garage rock revival.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

At the far side, Taran distinguished meager clumps of wasted trees.

From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander

Although his classmates had been using their phones to get information for their studies, they were also wasting time on social media.

From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026

“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

"The government needs to improve the service's resilience and efficiency, otherwise expanding electronic monitoring risks wasting public money and puts public safety at risk", said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

“You’re wasting your limited time and energy hating Danny Devon. It is not impacting Danny Devon in the slightest. You’re only harming your soul and your happiness.”

From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty

Related Words

• blow
• consume
• deplete
• dissipate
• divert
• drain
• exhaust
• lavish
• lose
• misuse
• squander
• undermine