The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Waste \Waste\, a. [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus,
   influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosti, G.
   w["u]st, OS. w?sti, D. woest, AS. w[=e]ste. Cf. Vast.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary;
      dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
      [1913 Webster]

            The dismal situation waste and wild.  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into
            the waste darkness of futurity.       --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse;
      rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
      [1913 Webster]

            But his waste words returned to him in vain.
                                                  --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

            Not a waste or needless sound,
            Till we come to holier ground.        --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Ill day which made this beauty waste. --Emerson.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.
      [1913 Webster]

            And strangled with her waste fertility. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   Waste gate, a gate by which the superfluous water of a
      reservoir, or the like, is discharged.

   Waste paper. See under Paper.

   Waste pipe, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous,
      water or other fluids. Specifically:
      (a) (Steam Boilers) An escape pipe. See under Escape.
      (b) (Plumbing) The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl,
          tub, sink, or the like.

   Waste steam.
      (a) Steam which escapes the air.
      (b) Exhaust steam.

   Waste trap, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Waste \Waste\, n. [OE. waste; cf. the kindred AS. w[=e]sten,
   OHG. w[=o]st[imac], wuost[imac], G. w["u]ste. See Waste, a.
   & v.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a
      squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or
      expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain;
      gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a
      waste of property, time, labor, words, etc. "Waste . . .
      of catel and of time." --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            For all this waste of wealth loss of blood.
                                                  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            He will never . . . in the way of waste, attempt us
            again.                                --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Little wastes in great establishments, constantly
            occurring, may defeat the energies of a mighty
            capital.                              --L. Beecher.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated,
      uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an
      unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a
      wilderness. "The wastes of Nature." --Emerson.
      [1913 Webster]

            All the leafy nation sinks at last,
            And Vulcan rides in triumph o'er the waste.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is
            his tomb and his monument.            --Bancroft.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse.
      Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting
      from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used
      for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of
      railway cars, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses,
      woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or for
      years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in
      reversion or remainder.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or
         permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of
         necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to
         the freehold is a waste. --Blackstone.
         [1913 Webster]

   5. (Mining) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant
      space or filled with refuse.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. (Phys. Geog.) Material derived by mechanical and chemical
      erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   Syn: Prodigality; diminution; loss; dissipation; destruction;
        devastation; havoc; desolation; ravage.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Waste \Waste\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wasted; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Wasting.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F.
   g[^a]ter to spoil, L. vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr.
   vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but
   influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosten, G.
   w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See Waste, a.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
            Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

            The Tiber
            Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish
      by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear
      out.
      [1913 Webster]

            Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
                                                  --Num. xiv.
                                                  33.
      [1913 Webster]

            O, were I able
            To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Here condemned
            To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of
            age daily grew on him.                --Robertson.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ
      prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to
      useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause
      to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury.
      [1913 Webster]

            The younger son gathered all together, and . . .
            wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv.
                                                  13.
      [1913 Webster]

            Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
            And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate,
      voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc.,
      to go to decay.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Waste \Waste\ (w[=a]st), v. i.
   1. To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength,
      value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle;
      to grow less; -- commonly used with away.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

            The time wasteth night and day.       --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            The barrel of meal shall not waste.   --1 Kings
                                                  xvii. 14.
      [1913 Webster]

            But man dieth, and wasteth away.      --Job xiv. 10.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Sporting) To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; --
      said of a jockey in preparation for a race, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

waste
    adj 1: located in a dismal or remote area; desolate; "a desert
           island"; "a godforsaken wilderness crossroads"; "a wild
           stretch of land"; "waste places" [syn: godforsaken,
           waste, wild]
    n 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" [syn: waste,
         waste material, waste matter, waste product]
    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" [syn: waste, wastefulness,
       dissipation]
    3: the trait of wasting resources; "a life characterized by
       thriftlessness and waste"; "the wastefulness of missed
       opportunities" [syn: thriftlessness, waste,
       wastefulness]
    4: an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation;
       "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the
       desert" [syn: barren, waste, wasteland]
    5: (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or
       neglect [syn: waste, permissive waste]
    v 1: spend thoughtlessly; throw away; "He wasted his inheritance
         on his insincere friends"; "You squandered the opportunity
         to get and advanced degree" [syn: waste, blow,
         squander] [ant: conserve, economise, economize,
         husband]
    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"
       [syn: waste, run off]
    5: get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing; "The
       mafia liquidated the informer"; "the double agent was
       neutralized" [syn: neutralize, neutralise, liquidate,
       waste, knock off, do in]
    6: spend extravagantly; "waste not, want not" [syn: consume,
       squander, waste, ware]
    7: lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief; "After her
       husband died, she just pined away" [syn: pine away,
       waste, languish]
    8: cause to grow thin or weak; "The treatment emaciated him"
       [syn: waste, emaciate, macerate]
    9: cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay
       waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: lay waste
       to, waste, devastate, desolate, ravage, scourge]
    10: become physically weaker; "Political prisoners are wasting
        away in many prisons all over the world" [syn: waste,
        rot]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

440 Moby Thesaurus words for "waste":
   Arabia Deserta, Death Valley, Sahara, abate, ablate, ablation,
   absorption, acarpous, afterglow, afterimage, arid, assimilation,
   atrophy, attenuate, attrition, back, back of beyond, back-country,
   backwood, backwoods, backwoodsy, balance, barren, barren land,
   barrens, bate, be consumed, be eaten away, be gone, be used up,
   blast, bloodbath, blot out, blow, blue ruin, blunder away, bones,
   breakup, bring to ruin, brush, bump off, burning up, bush, butt,
   butt end, candle ends, carnage, carpe diem, cast away, cease,
   cease to be, cease to exist, celibate, chaff, childless, condemn,
   confound, conspicuous consumption, consume, consume away,
   consumption, corrode, corrosion, croak, crumble, culm, damn,
   damnation, deadwood, deal destruction, debris, decimate,
   decimation, decline, decrease, decrement, dejecta, dejection,
   dejecture, deliquesce, deliquescence, dematerialize, depart,
   deplete, depletion, depreciate, depreciation, depredate,
   depredation, desecrate, desert, desolate, desolation, despoil,
   despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, detritus,
   devastate, devastation, devour, die, die away, die out, digestion,
   diminish, disappear, discharge, dishwater, disintegration,
   disorganization, dispel, disperse, disruption, dissipate,
   dissipation, dissolution, dissolve, dive, do a fade-out, do in,
   draff, drain, drained, dregs, dribble away, dried-up, drivel,
   droop, drop, drop off, dry, dry up, dust, dust bowl, dwindle,
   eating up, ebb, effluent, egesta, ejecta, ejectamenta, ejection,
   emacerate, emaciate, emaciation, end, engorge, erase, erode,
   erosion, evanesce, evaporate, evaporation, excrement, excreta,
   excretes, exhaust, exhausted, exhaustion, exit, expend, expending,
   expenditure, extravagance, extravagancy, extravasate,
   extravasation, exudate, exudation, fade, fade away, fade out,
   fag end, fail, fall, fall away, fall off, fallow, filings,
   finishing, fix, flag, flee, fly, fool away, fossil, fritter,
   frivol, fruitless, garbage, gash, gaunt, gelded, get, give out,
   give the business, go, go away, gobble, gobble up, gun down, gut,
   gut with fire, havoc, heath, hecatomb, hide, hinterland, hit,
   hogwash, holdover, holocaust, howling wilderness, husks, ice,
   impotent, impoverishment, incinerate, incontinence, ineffectual,
   infecund, infertile, ingestion, intemperance, issueless, jejune,
   jungle, junk, karroo, kelter, languish, lavishness, lay in ruins,
   lay out, lay waste, leached, leakage, leaking purse,
   leave no trace, leave the scene, leavings, lees, leftovers, lessen,
   let up, litter, loose purse strings, lose, lose strength, loss,
   lunar landscape, lunar waste, macerate, marcescence, melt,
   melt away, menopausal, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive,
   nonprolific, odds and ends, off, offal, offscourings, orts,
   outback, overdoing, overgenerosity, overgenerousness,
   overliberality, parch, parings, pass, pass away, pass out, peak,
   perdition, perish, peter out, pillage, pine, pine away, plummet,
   plunge, polish off, potsherds, pound-foolishness, preshrink,
   prodigality, profligacy, profuseness, profusion, rags, raspings,
   ravage, reckless expenditure, reckless spending, refuse, relics,
   remainder, remains, remnant, residue, residuum, rest,
   retire from sight, roach, rub out, rubbish, rubble, ruin, ruinate,
   ruination, ruins, rummage, rump, run down, run dry, run low,
   run out, run to seed, run to waste, sack, sag, salt flat, sawdust,
   scourings, scrap iron, scraps, scum, sear, settle, shadow,
   shambles, shards, shavings, shipwreck, shrink, shrinkage, shrivel,
   sine prole, sink, slack, slag, slaughter, slop, slops, spend,
   spending, spill, spoliate, spoliation, squander, squandering,
   squandermania, sterile, straw, stubble, stump, subside, sucked dry,
   suffer an eclipse, survival, swallow up, sweepings, swill, sylvan,
   tail off, take care of, tares, teemless, thin, throw into disorder,
   trace, transudate, transudation, trash, uncultivated, undoing,
   unfertile, unfruitful, unleash destruction, unleash the hurricane,
   unplowed, unproductive, unprolific, unsown, untilled, up-country,
   upheave, use up, using, using up, vandalism, vandalize, vanish,
   vanish from sight, vaporize, vestige, virgin, wane, wastage,
   waste away, waste matter, wasted, wastefulness, wasteland,
   wastepaper, wasting away, weaken, wear, wear and tear, wear away,
   wearing, wearing away, wearing down, weary waste, weazen, weeds,
   wild, wilderness, wildness, wilds, wilt, wilting, wipe out, wither,
   wither away, withering, without issue, wizen, woodland, wrack,
   wrack and ruin, wreak havoc, wreck, zap



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

WASTE. A spoil or destruction houses, gardens, trees, or other corporeal
hereditaments, to the disherison of him that hath the remainder or reversion
in fee simple or fee tail 2 Bl. Comm. 281.
     2. The doctrine of waste is somewhat different in this country from
what it is in England. It is adapted to our circumstances. 3 Yeates, R. 261;
4 Kent, Com. 76; Walk. Intr. 278; 7 John. Rep. 227; 2 Hayw. R. 339; 2 Hayw.
R. 110; 6 Munf. R. 134; 1 Rand. Rep. 258; 6 Yerg. Rep. 334. Waste is either
voluntary or permissive.
     3.-Sec. 1. Voluntary waste. A voluntary waste is an act of commission,
as tearing down a house. This kind of waste is committed in houses, in
timber, and in land. It is committed in houses by removing wainscots,
floors, benches, furnaces, window-glass, windows, doors, shelves, and other
things once fixed to the freehold, although they may have been erected by
the lessee himself, unless they were erected for the purposes of trade. See
Fixtures; Bac. Ab. Waste, C 6. And this kind of waste may take place not
only in pulling down houses, or parts of them, but also in changing their
forms; as, if the tenant pull down a house and erect a new one in the place,
whether it be larger or smaller than the first; 2 Roll. Ab. 815, 1. 33; or
convert a parlor into a stable; or a grist-mill into a fulling-mill; 2 Roll.
Abr. 814, 815; or turn two rooms into one. 2 Roll. Ab. 815, 1. 37. The
building of a house where there was none before is said to be a waste; Co.
Litt. 53, a; and taking it down after it is built, is a waste. Com. Dig.
Waste, D 2. It is a general rule that when a lessee has annexed anything to
the freehold during the term, and afterwards takes it away, it is waste. 3
East, 51. This principle is established in the French law. Lois des Bit.
part. 2,
     3, art. 1; 18 Toull. n. 457.
     4. But at a very early period several exceptions were attempted to be
made to this rule, which were at last effectually engrafted upon it in favor
of trade, and of those vessels and utensils, which are immediately
subservient to the purposes of trade. Ibid.
     5. This relaxation of the old rule has taken place between two
descriptions of persons; that is, between the landlord and tenant, and
between the tenant for life or tenant in tail and the remainder-man or
reversioner.
     6. As between the landlord and tenant it is now the law, that if the
lessee annex any chattel to the house for the purpose of his trade, he may
disunite it during the continuance of his interest, 1 H. B. 258. But this
relation extends only to erections for the purposes of trade.
     7. It has been decided that a tenant for years may remove cider-mills,
ornamental marble chimney pieces, wainscots fixed only by screws, and such
like. 2 Bl. Com. 281, note by Chitty. A tenant of a farm cannot remove
buildings which he has erected for the purposes of husbandry, and the better
enjoyment of the profits of the land, though he thereby leaves the premises
the same as when he entered. 2 East, 88; 3 East, 51; 6 Johns., Rep. 5; 7
Mass. Rep. 433.
     8. Voluntary waste may be committed on timber, and in the country from
which we have borrowed our laws, the law is very strict. In Pennsylvania,
however, and many of the other states, the law has applied itself to our
situation, and those acts which in England would amount to waste, are not so
accounted here. Stark. Ev. part 4, p. 1667, n.; 3 Yeates, 251. Where wild
and uncultivated land, wholly covered with wood and timber, is leased, the
lessee may fell a part of the wood and timber, so as to fit the land for
cultivation, without being liable to waste, but he cannot cut down the whole
so as permanently to injure the inheritance. And to what extent the wood and
timber on such land may be cut down without waste, is a question of fact for
the jury under the direction of the court. 7 Johns. R. 227. The tenant may
cut down trees for the reparation of the houses, fences, hedges, stiles,
gates, and the like; Co. Litt. 53, b; and for mixing and repairing all
instruments of husbandry, as ploughs, carts, harrows, rakes, forks, &c.
Wood's Inst. 344. The tenant may, when he is unrestrained by the terms of
his lease, out down timber, if there  be not enough dead timber. Com. Dig
Waste, D 5; F. N. B. 59 M. Where the tenant, by the conditions of his lease,
is entitled to cut down timber, he is restrained nevertheless from cutting
down ornamental trees, or those planted for shelter; 6 Ves. 419; or to
exclude objects from sight. 16 Ves. 375.
     9. Windfalls are the property of the landlord, for whatever is severed
by inevitable necessity, as by a tempest, or by a trespasser, and by wrong,
belongs to him who has the inheritance. 3 P. Wms. 268; 11 Rep. 81, Bac. Abr.
Waste, D 2.
     10. Waste is frequently committed on cultivated fields, orchards,
gardens, meadows, and the like. It is proper here to remark that there is an
implied covenant or agreement on the part of the lessee to use a farm in a
husbandman-like manner, and not to exhaust the soil by neglectful or
improper tillage. 5 T. R. 373. See 6 Ves. 328. It is therefore waste to
convert arable to woodland and the contrary, or meadow to arable; or meadow
to orchard. Co. Lit. 53, b. Cutting down fruit trees; 2 Roll. Abr. 817, l.
30; although planted by the tenant himself, is waste; and it was held to be
waste for an outgoing tenant of garden ground to plough up strawberry beds
which be had bought of a former tenant when he entered. i Camp. 227.
     11. It is a general rule that when lands are leased on which there are
open mines of metal or coal or pits of gravel, lime, clay, brick, earth,
stone, and the like, the tenant may dig out of such mines, or pits. Com.
Dig. Waste, D 4. But he cannot open any new mines or pits without being
guilty of waste Co. Lit. 53 b; and carrying away the soil, is waste. Com.
Dig. Waste, D 4.
     12.-Sec. 2. Permissive waste. Permissive waste in houses is punishable
where the tenant is expressly bound to repair, or where he is so bound on an
implied covenant. See 2 Esp. R. 590; 1 Esp. Rep. 277; Bac. Abr. Covenant, F.
It is waste if the tenant suffer a house leased to him to remain uncovered
so long that the rafters or other timbers of the house become rotten, unless
the house was uncovered when the tenant took possession. Com. Dig. Waste, D
2.
     13.-Sec. 3. Of remedies for waste. The ancient writ of waste has been
superseded. It is usual to bring case in the nature of waste instead of the
action of waste, as well for permissive as voluntary waste.
     14. Some decisions have made it doubtful whether an action on the case
for permissive waste can be maintained against any tenant for years. See 1
New Rep. 290; 4 Taunt. 764; 7 Taunt. 392; S. C. 1 Moore, 100; 1 Saund. 323,
a, n. i. Even where the lessee covenants not to do waste, the lessor has his
election to bring either an action on the case, or of, covenant, against the
lessee for waste done by him during the term. 2 Bl. Rep. 1111; 2 Saund. 252,
c. n. In an action on the case in the nature of waste, the plaintiff
recovers only damages for the waste.
     15. The latter action has this advantage over an action of waste, that
it may be brought by him in reversion or remainder for life or years, as
well as in fee or in tail; and the plaintiff is entitled to costs in this
action, which he cannot have in an action of waste., 2 Saund. 252, n. See,
on the subject in general, Woodf. Landl. & T. 217, ch. 9, s. 1; Bac. Abr.
Waste; Vin. Abr. Waste; Com. Dig. Waste; Supp. to Ves. jr. 50, 325, 441; 1
Vern. R. 23, n.; 2 Saund. 252, a, n. 7, 259, n. 11; Arch. Civ. Pl. 495; 2
Sell. Pr. 234; 3 Bl. Com. 180, note by Chitty; Amer. Dig. Waste; Whart. Dig.
Waste; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.
     As to remedies against waste by injunction, see 1 Vern. R. 23, n.; 5 P.
Wms. 268, n. F; 1 Eq. Cas. Ab. 400; 6 Ves. 787, 107, 419; 8 Ves. 70; 16 Ves.
375; 2 Swanst. 251; 3 Madd. 498; Jacob's R. 70; Drew. on Inj. part 2, c. 1,
p. 134. As between tenants in common, 5 Taunt. 24; 19 Ves. 159; 16 Ves. 132;
3 Bro. C. C. 622; 2 Dick. 667; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.; and the article
Injunction. As to remedy by writ of estrepement to prevent waste, see
Estrepement; Woodf Landl. & T. 447; 2 Yeates, 281; 4 Smith's Laws of Penn.
89; 3 Bl. Com. 226.  As to remedies in cases of fraud in committing waste,
see Hov. Fr. ch. 7, p. 226 to 238.