waste
Noun pluralwastes
Pluralwastes
- 1To use money, time, or things in a careless way that gives no good result.
Like pouring water on the ground when you could have drunk it.
Don't waste your money on things you'll never use.
He wasted the whole afternoon playing games.
UsageSay waste time doing something (not
incorrect: waste time to do).Similarsquander, fritter, misspend, blow, dissipate
Oppositesave, conserve, economize
Note
- 2Things that are thrown away because they are no longer wanted or useful.
Like the peelings and scraps left over after you cook a meal.
The factory produces tons of waste every week.
We sort our household waste into different bins.
UsageSay food waste or a lot of waste.
- 3The act of using something in a careless way, so that much of it is lost.
Like filling a glass until it overflows and the extra spills away.
Throwing away all that good food is a terrible waste.
The waste of his talent saddened everyone who knew him.
UsageSay a waste of time or a waste of money.
Similarsquandering, misuse, extravagance, profligacy
Oppositeeconomy, thrift, frugality, conservation
- 4
- 5
- 6To slowly become thinner and weaker, often from illness, or to make something do this.
Like a candle slowly burning down to nothing.
During his long illness, my uncle wasted away to almost nothing.
Without enough food, the body will slowly waste away.
UsageSay someone wastes away.
Similarwither, weaken, atrophy, shrivel
Oppositethrive, flourish, strengthen
- 7A slow loss or wearing away of something, especially of the body from illness.
Similardeterioration, decay, atrophy
Less common meanings
- 8
- 9To completely destroy a place, often a town or land, in war or attack.
Like a storm that flattens everything in its way.
The army was ordered to waste every village in its path.
The raiders wasted the countryside, burning farms as they went.
UsagePeople now usually say lay waste to a place.
Similardevastate, ravage, destroy, raze, sack
Note
- 10A huge, empty, lonely area of wild land or sea where few or no people live.
Like a huge empty desert with nothing for miles around.
Travelers crossed the frozen waste for days without seeing a soul.
Nothing but sand stretched across the endless waste.
UsageOften plural: the frozen wastes.
Similarwasteland, wilderness, desert
Note
- 11Empty and bare, with little or nothing growing or living there.
Like an empty lot where nothing but dust and weeds remain.
They built their hut on a stretch of waste ground.
Only weeds grew on the waste land behind the factory.
UsageSay waste ground or waste land.
Similarbarren, desolate, uncultivated, wild, empty
Oppositefertile, cultivated, productive
Note
- 12
- 13Ruin caused by war or disaster, or a place that has been destroyed.
Like a sandcastle stomped flat, with nothing left standing.
The bombs turned the city center into a smoking waste.
After the battle, the village was a charred waste.
Similarwasteland, ruin, devastation
- 14A huge amount of something that is there but never gets used.
Similarexpanse
- 15Land on a manor that was not farmed, where tenants often had rights to graze animals or cut turf.
Like a shared open field in a village that no one owns alone.
The villagers grazed their geese on the manor's waste.
The lord allowed peasants to gather wood from the waste.
Similarcommon
Note
- 16Sad, gloomy, and without any cheer.
- 17A legal claim against someone who damages property that another person will later own.
- 18To harm a property you hold by damaging it or letting it fall apart.
- 19Bits of rock and soil worn away by water and carried out to the sea.
- 20An old part of a mine that is no longer used.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of waste apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
From Old French wast ("a waste"), which came from an old Germanic word meaning empty or wasted.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Waste derives from Old French wast, a noun meaning a waste. en.wiktionary.org
- The French word derives from an older Germanic word meaning empty or wasted. en.wiktionary.org
From Old French wast ("waste, empty"), from an old Germanic word meaning empty or wasted.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Waste comes from Old French wast, meaning waste or empty; the more specific variety is Old Northern French. en.wiktionary.org
- The French word comes from an old Germanic word meaning empty or wasted. en.wiktionary.org
From Old French waster ("to waste, destroy"). This came either from a Frankish word or from Latin vastāre, and was helped along by a similar native English word.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The French origin and meaning are confirmed. en.wiktionary.org
- Frankish and Latin are alternative proposed origins. en.wiktionary.org
- A similar native word assisted its development. en.wiktionary.org