wastes

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of waste.

   The old furnace wastes a great deal of fuel before it warms the house.

   Whoever leaves the lights on all night wastes electricity needlessly.

   Note

   The verb runs in two directions, with or without an object. Used transitively, it squanders or ruins something: she wastes her time, an army wastes the countryside. In slang, someone who wastes a rival kills him. Used intransitively, it describes slow decline, usually with away: the patient wastes away. Don't confuse it with the plural noun, which only looks the same.

   Without proper food, the stray dog slowly wastes away.

   In the film, the hitman wastes anyone who crosses him.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of waste.

   Industrial wastes polluted the harbor for decades before the cleanup began.

   The treatment plant separates solid and liquid wastes before processing them.

   Note

   The plural does two quite different jobs. With material, it names kinds or streams rather than more of the stuff: industrial wastes, solid and liquid wastes. The uncountable waste would mean the mass as a whole. With land, it names whole stretches of wilderness, such as desert wastes. In manorial history it also names the uncultivated parts of an estate, which are now treated as common land.

   The caravan spent a month crossing the desert wastes.

   Beyond the last farm lay the windswept wastes of the moor.

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