waste.
Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
Meaning & usage
Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
Excrement or urine.
The cage was littered with animal waste.
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.
That was a waste of time!
Her life seemed a waste.
Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
Gradual loss or decay.
A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; 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.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wast, waste (“a waste”, noun), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste (“a waste”), from Frankish *wōstī (“a waste”), from Proto-Germanic *wōstaz, *wōstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen
Useless and contemptible.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wast, waste (“a waste”, noun), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste (“a waste”), from Frankish *wōstī (“a waste”), from Proto-Germanic *wōstaz, *wōstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen
Uncultivated, uninhabited.
Barren; desert; empty.
Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
Superfluous; needless.
Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
Unfortunate; disappointing.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wast, waste (“waste”, adjective), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast (“waste”), from Frankish *wōstī (“waste, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”). Cognate with Old High German wuosti, wuasti (“waste, empty”), German wüst, Old Saxon wōsti (“desolate”), Old English wēste (“waste, barren, desolate, empty”).
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.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wasten (“to waste, lay waste”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French waster (“to waste, devastate”) (compare also the variant gaster and French gâter from a related Old French word); the Anglo-Norman form waster was either from Frankish *wōstijan (“to waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *wāsto- (“empty, wasted”), or alternatively from Latin vastāre and influenced by the Frankish; the English word was assisted by similarity to native Middle English westen ("to waste"; > English weest). Cognate with Old High German wuostan, wuastan, wuostjan (“to waste”) (Modern German wüsten), Old English wēstan (“to lay waste, ravage”). Displaced native Old English essian and strȳndan. Largely overtook Old English forspillan and wēstan.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.