waste
/ˈweɪ̯st/ verb B1- To devastate; to destroy.
- To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate. · We wasted millions of dollars and several years on that project.
- To kill; to murder.
- To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
- To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
- To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
Plural waste · He/she/it wastes · Past wasted · Past participle wasted · -ing form wasting
Verb forms
- Base form
- waste
- He/she/it
- wastes
- Past
- wasted
- Past participle
- wasted
- -ing form
- wasting
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
“I think you might do something better with the time,” she said, “than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.”
“If you knew Time as well as I do,” said the Hatter, “you wouldn’t talk about wasting _it_.
And I wouldn’t have then, only I sent up this cotton waste and oil from the engine-room this afternoon for a girl upstairs who had her hand burned with a smoothing-iron.
You’ve got as much money to waste as any of ’em, and yet you stick to what’s decent and moderate.
Other matches
Learn waste in real texts
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