waste

Meanings

Noun

• Excess of material, useless by-products or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
• Excrement or urine.
• A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
• A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
• A large tract of uncultivated land.
• The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
• A vast expanse of water.
• A disused mine or part of one.
• The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
• Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
• Gradual loss or decay.
• A decaying of the body by disease; wasting away.
• Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; See "to lay waste"
• A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
• Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.

Adjective

• Uncultivated, uninhabited.
• Barren; desert.
• Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
• Superfluous; needless.
• Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
• Unfortunate; disappointing.

Verb

• to devastate, destroy
• To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly.
• 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.
• 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.

Origin

• From Middle English waste, from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste, from Frankish *wōstī, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-.
• From Middle English waste, from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, from Frankish *wōstī, from Proto-Indo-European *wāsto-. Cognate with Old High German wuosti, wuasti, German wüst, Old Saxon wōsti, Old English wēste.
• . Cognate with Old High German wuostan, wuastan, wuostjan (Modern German wüsten), Old English wēstan.