[syn: atrophy, wasting, wasting away]
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.
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O, were I able
To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
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Here condemned
To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
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Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of
age daily grew on him. --Robertson.
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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.
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Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
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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.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wasting \Wast"ing\, a.
Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a
wasting disease; a wasting fortune.
[1913 Webster]
Wasting palsy (Med.), progressive muscular atrophy. See
under Progressive.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
wasting
n 1: any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and
mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease [syn:
cachexia, cachexy, wasting]
2: a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse
[syn: atrophy, wasting, wasting away]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
188 Moby Thesaurus words for "wasting":
Sanforizing, abscess, aging, ague, anemia, ankylosis, anoxia,
apnea, asphyxiation, asthma, ataxia, atrophy, attenuation,
backache, baneful, bleeding, blennorhea, cachexia, cachexy,
calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, chill, chills,
chronic ill health, colic, coming apart, constipation, consuming,
consumption, consumptive, convulsion, coughing, cracking,
crumbling, cyanosis, deadly, debilitation, debility, decadent,
declining, decrepitude, degenerate, delicacy, delicate health,
demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying,
destructive, deteriorating, devastating, diarrhea, disastrous,
disintegrating, dizziness, doomful, doting, draining, drooping,
dropsy, drying, drying up, dwindling, dysentery, dyspepsia,
dyspnea, ebbing, edema, effete, emaceration, emaciation,
enervation, exhaustion, fading, failing, fainting, falling, fatal,
fateful, fatigue, feebleness, fever, fibrillation, flagging, flux,
fragility, fragmenting, frailty, fratricidal, getting on,
going to pieces, growing old, growth, healthlessness, hemorrhage,
high blood pressure, hydrops, hypertension, hypochondria,
hypochondriasis, hypotension, icterus, ill health, indigestion,
infirmity, inflammation, insomnia, internecine, invalidism,
invalidity, itching, jaundice, labored breathing, languishing,
languishment, low blood pressure, lumbago, marasmus, marcescent,
morbidity, morbidness, nasal discharge, nausea, necrosis, nihilist,
nihilistic, pain, paralysis, parching, peakedness, pining,
poor health, preshrinkage, pruritus, rash, ravaging, regressive,
retrograde, retrogressive, rheum, ruining, ruinous, sclerosis,
searing, seizure, self-destructive, senescent, shock, shrinkage,
shrinking, shriveling, sickliness, sinking, skin eruption, sliding,
slipping, slumping, sneezing, sore, spasm, subsiding,
subversionary, subversive, suicidal, tabes, tabetic, tachycardia,
thinning, tumor, unhealthiness, unsoundness, unwholesomeness,
upset stomach, valetudinarianism, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic,
vertigo, vomiting, waning, wasteful, weakliness, wilting,
withering, worsening