waste
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wāst
ipa: /weɪst/
homophone: waist
rhymes: -eɪst
Forms: form: wastes
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: glosses: Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
examples: text: The cage was littered with animal waste.
glosses: Excrement or urine.
examples: text: We went down accordingly into the waste, and began to make our toilsome and devious travel towards the eastern verge.
ref: 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:
text: The pampas of Argentina and the chilly wastes of Patagonia, like the prairies and deserts of North America, were largely shunned by Spanish settlers until the 1870s.
ref: 1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin history of Latin America, London; New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 33:
glosses: A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
glosses: A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
glosses: A large tract of uncultivated land.
glosses: The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
glosses: A vast expanse of water.
glosses: A disused mine or part of one.
examples: text: That was a waste of time!
text: Her life seemed a waste.
text: 'Rebel railwaymen' at Birmingham New Street refused to wear the new uniforms on the grounds that they were a "complete waste of public money".
ref: 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39:
glosses: The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
glosses: Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
glosses: Gradual loss or decay.
glosses: A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
glosses: Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste".
topics: law
glosses: 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.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: agrowaste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: ameliorative waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: bulky waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: cotton waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: e-waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: food waste disposer
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: go to waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: great haste makes great waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: green waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: haste makes waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: industrial waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: nuclear waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: permissive waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: radioactive waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: residual waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: rock waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: run to waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: silk waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: soda waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: time-waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: toxic waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: trade waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: voluntary waste
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste bin
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste disposal
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste disposal unit
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: wasteful
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: wastefully
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: wastefulness
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste gate
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste good
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste-good
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste land
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: wasteless
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of air
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of breath
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of existence
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of oxygen
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of skin
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of space
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste of time
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste paper
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste picker
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste pipe
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste product
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste-ridden
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste sorting
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste tray
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: wastey
sense: terms derived from waste (noun)
word: waste yute