Meaning of 'waste' (Webster Dictionary)
- Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal;
gloomy; cheerless.
- Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse;
rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
- Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.
- To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
- To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by
constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- 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.
- To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or
by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or
filled with refuse.
- To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength,
value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle; to grow
less.
- To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; -- said of a
jockey in preparation for a race, etc.
Meaning of 'waste' (Princeton's WordNet)
Meaning (1):
- the trait of wasting resources
Example in sentence:- a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste;
- the wastefulness of missed opportunities
Meaning (2):
- useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly
Example in sentence:- if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste;
- mindless dissipation of natural resources
Meaning (3):
- any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted
Example in sentence:- much of the waste material is carried off in the sewers;
- they collect the waste once a week
Meaning (4):
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
Example in sentence:- the barrens of central Africa;
- the trackless wastes of the desert
Meaning (5):
- lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
Example in sentence:- After her husband died, she just pined away
Meaning (6):
- get rid of
Example in sentence:- he shed his image as a pushy boss;
- I couldn't shake the car that was following me;
- shed your clothes;
- We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer
Meaning (7):
- spend thoughtlessly; throw away
Example in sentence:- He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends;
- You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree
Meaning (8):
- become physically weaker
Example in sentence:- Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world
Meaning (9):
- get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
Example in sentence:- the double agent was neutralized;
- The mafia liquidated the informer
Meaning (10):
- cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
Example in sentence:- The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion
Meaning (11):
- cause to grow thin or weak
Example in sentence:- The treatment emaciated him
Meaning (12):
- run off as waste
Example in sentence:- The water wastes back into the ocean
Meaning (13):
- use inefficiently or inappropriately
Example in sentence:- waste a joke on an unappreciative audience;
- waste heat
Meaning (14):
- spend extravagantly
Meaning (15):
- located in a dismal or remote area; desolate
Example in sentence:- a desert island;
- a godforsaken wilderness crossroads;
- a wild stretch of land;
- waste places
Definition
[ a.]