From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Waste \Waste\, adjective [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus, influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosti, G. w["u]st, OS. w?sti, D. woest, AS. w[=e]ste. Cf. {Vast}.]
1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
The dismal situation waste and wild. --Milton.
His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into the waste darkness of futurity. --Sir W. Scott.
2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
But his waste words returned to him in vain. --Spenser.
Not a waste or needless sound, Till we come to holier ground. --Milton.
Ill day which made this beauty waste. --Emerson.
3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.
And strangled with her waste fertility. --Milton.
{Waste gate}, a gate by which the superfluous water of a reservoir, or the like, is discharged.
{Waste paper}. See under {Paper}.
{Waste pipe}, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous, water or other fluids. Specifically: (a) (Steam Boilers) An escape pipe. See under {Escape}. (b) (Plumbing) The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl, tub, sink, or the like.
{Waste steam}. (a) Steam which escapes the air. (b) Exhaust steam.
{Waste trap}, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Waste \Waste\, noun [OE. waste; cf. the kindred AS. w[=e]sten, OHG. w[=o]st[=i], wuost[=i], G. w["u]ste. See {Waste}, adjective & v.]
1. The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain; gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a waste of property, time, labor, words, etc. ''Waste . . . of catel and of time.'' --Chaucer.
For all this waste of wealth loss of blood. --Milton.
He will never . . . in the way of waste, attempt us again. --Shak.
Little wastes in great establishments, constantly occurring, may defeat the energies of a mighty capital. --L. Beecher.
2. That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated, uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a wilderness. ''The wastes of Nature.'' --Emerson.
All the leafy nation sinks at last, And Vulcan rides in triumph o'er the waste. --Dryden.
The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is his tomb and his monument. --Bancroft.
3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse. Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of railway cars, etc.
4. (Law) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses, woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or for years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder.
Note: Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to the freehold is a {waste}. --Blackstone.
5. (Mining) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or filled with refuse.
6. (Phys. Geog.) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Syn: Prodigality; diminution; loss; dissipation; destruction; devastation; havoc; desolation; ravage.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Waste \Waste\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Wasted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wasting}.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F. g[^a]ter to spoil, L. vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr. vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosten, G. w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See {Waste}, adjective]
1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted, Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.
The Tiber Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds. --Dryden.
2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. --Num. xiv. 33.
O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him. --Robertson.
3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury.
The younger son gathered all together, and . . . wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv. 13.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.
Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Waste \Waste\ (w[=a]st), verb (used without an object)
1. To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle; to grow less; -- commonly used with away. [1913 Webster +PJC]
The time wasteth night and day. --Chaucer.
The barrel of meal shall not waste. --1 Kings xvii. 14.
But man dieth, and wasteth away. --Job xiv. 10.
2. (Sporting) To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; -- said of a jockey in preparation for a race, etc.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: disposed of as useless; "waste paper" [syn: {cast-off(a)}, {discarded}, {junked}, {scrap(a)}]
2: located in a dismal or remote area; desolate; "a desert island"; "a godforsaken wilderness crossroads"; "a wild stretch of land"; "waste places" [syn: {desert}, {godforsaken}, {wild}]
noun
1: any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted; "they collect the waste once a week"; "much of the waste material is carried off in the sewers" [syn: {waste material}, {waste matter}, {waste product}]
2: useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly; "if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste"; "mindless dissipation of natural resources" [syn: {wastefulness}, {dissipation}]
3: the trait of wasting resources; "a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste"; "the wastefulness of missed opportunities" [syn: {thriftlessness}, {wastefulness}]
4: an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert" [syn: {barren}, {wasteland}]
5: (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect [syn: {permissive waste}]
verb
1: spend thoughtlessly; throw away; "He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends"; "You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree" [syn: {blow}, {squander}] [ant: {conserve}]
2: use inefficiently or inappropriately; "waste heat"; "waste a joke on an unappreciative audience"
3: get rid of; "We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer"
4: run off as waste; "The water wastes back into the ocean" [syn: {run off}]
5: get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing; "The mafia liquidated the informer"; "the double agent was neutralized" [syn: {neutralize}, {neutralise}, {liquidate}, {knock off}, {do in}]
6: spend extravagantly; "waste not, want not" [syn: {consume}, {squander}, {ware}]
7: lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief; "After her husband died, she just pined away" [syn: {pine away}, {languish}]
8: cause to grow thin or weak; "The treatment emaciated him" [syn: {emaciate}, {macerate}]
9: devastate or ravage; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: {lay waste to}, {devastate}, {desolate}, {ravage}, {scourge}]
10: waste away; "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world" [syn: {rot}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
440 Moby Thesaurus words for "waste": Arabia Deserta, Death Valley, Sahara, abate, ablate, ablation, absorption, acarpous, afterglow, afterimage, arid, assimilation, atrophy, attenuate, attrition, back, back of beyond, back-country, backwood, backwoods, backwoodsy, balance, barren, barren land, barrens, bate, be consumed, be eaten away, be gone, be used up, blast, bloodbath, blot out, blow, blue ruin, blunder away, bones, breakup, bring to ruin, brush, bump off, burning up, bush, butt, butt end, candle ends, carnage, carpe diem, cast away, cease, cease to be, cease to exist, celibate, chaff, childless, condemn, confound, conspicuous consumption, consume, consume away, consumption, corrode, corrosion, croak, crumble, culm, damn, damnation, deadwood, deal destruction, debris, decimate, decimation, decline, decrease, decrement, dejecta, dejection, dejecture, deliquesce, deliquescence, dematerialize, depart, deplete, depletion, depreciate, depreciation, depredate, depredation, desecrate, desert, desolate, desolation, despoil, despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, detritus, devastate, devastation, devour, die, die away, die out, digestion, diminish, disappear, discharge, dishwater, disintegration, disorganization, dispel, disperse, disruption, dissipate, dissipation, dissolution, dissolve, dive, do a fade-out, do in, draff, drain, drained, dregs, dribble away, dried-up, drivel, droop, drop, drop off, dry, dry up, dust, dust bowl, dwindle, eating up, ebb, effluent, egesta, ejecta, ejectamenta, ejection, emacerate, emaciate, emaciation, end, engorge, erase, erode, erosion, evanesce, evaporate, evaporation, excrement, excreta, excretes, exhaust, exhausted, exhaustion, exit, expend, expending, expenditure, extravagance, extravagancy, extravasate, extravasation, exudate, exudation, fade, fade away, fade out, fag end, fail, fall, fall away, fall off, fallow, filings, finishing, fix, flag, flee, fly, fool away, fossil, fritter, frivol, fruitless, garbage, gash, gaunt, gelded, get, give out, give the business, go, go away, gobble, gobble up, gun down, gut, gut with fire, havoc, heath, hecatomb, hide, hinterland, hit, hogwash, holdover, holocaust, howling wilderness, husks, ice, impotent, impoverishment, incinerate, incontinence, ineffectual, infecund, infertile, ingestion, intemperance, issueless, jejune, jungle, junk, karroo, kelter, languish, lavishness, lay in ruins, lay out, lay waste, leached, leakage, leaking purse, leave no trace, leave the scene, leavings, lees, leftovers, lessen, let up, litter, loose purse strings, lose, lose strength, loss, lunar landscape, lunar waste, macerate, marcescence, melt, melt away, menopausal, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, odds and ends, off, offal, offscourings, orts, outback, overdoing, overgenerosity, overgenerousness, overliberality, parch, parings, pass, pass away, pass out, peak, perdition, perish, peter out, pillage, pine, pine away, plummet, plunge, polish off, potsherds, pound-foolishness, preshrink, prodigality, profligacy, profuseness, profusion, rags, raspings, ravage, reckless expenditure, reckless spending, refuse, relics, remainder, remains, remnant, residue, residuum, rest, retire from sight, roach, rub out, rubbish, rubble, ruin, ruinate, ruination, ruins, rummage, rump, run down, run dry, run low, run out, run to seed, run to waste, sack, sag, salt flat, sawdust, scourings, scrap iron, scraps, scum, sear, settle, shadow, shambles, shards, shavings, shipwreck, shrink, shrinkage, shrivel, sine prole, sink, slack, slag, slaughter, slop, slops, spend, spending, spill, spoliate, spoliation, squander, squandering, squandermania, sterile, straw, stubble, stump, subside, sucked dry, suffer an eclipse, survival, swallow up, sweepings, swill, sylvan, tail off, take care of, tares, teemless, thin, throw into disorder, trace, transudate, transudation, trash, uncultivated, undoing, unfertile, unfruitful, unleash destruction, unleash the hurricane, unplowed, unproductive, unprolific, unsown, untilled, up-country, upheave, use up, using, using up, vandalism, vandalize, vanish, vanish from sight, vaporize, vestige, virgin, wane, wastage, waste away, waste matter, wasted, wastefulness, wasteland, wastepaper, wasting away, weaken, wear, wear and tear, wear away, wearing, wearing away, wearing down, weary waste, weazen, weeds, wild, wilderness, wildness, wilds, wilt, wilting, wipe out, wither, wither away, withering, without issue, wizen, woodland, wrack, wrack and ruin, wreak havoc, wreck, zap
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