Meaning & Definition of Waste in English

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"

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"

3. The trait of wasting resources

• "A life characterized by thriftlessness and waste"

• "The wastefulness of missed opportunities"

4. An uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation

• "The barrens of central africa"

• "The trackless wastes of the desert"

5. (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect

1. Spend thoughtlessly

• Throw away

• "He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends"

• "You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree"

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"

5. Get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing

• "The mafia liquidated the informer"

• "The double agent was neutralized"

6. Spend extravagantly

• "Waste not, want not"

7. Lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief

• "After her husband died, she just pined away"

8. Cause to grow thin or weak

• "The treatment emaciated him"

9. Cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

• "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion"

10. Become physically weaker

• "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world"

1. Located in a dismal or remote area

• Desolate

• "A desert island"

• "A godforsaken wilderness crossroads"

• "A wild stretch of land"

• "Waste places"