waste

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the trait of wasting resources

   a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste

2. 2
   noun

   any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted

   they collect the waste once a week

3. 3
   verb

   cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

   The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion

4. 4
   verb

   spend extravagantly

   waste not, want not

5. 5
   verb

   use inefficiently or inappropriately

   waste heat

6. 6
   verb

   run off as waste

   The water wastes back into the ocean

7. 7
   verb

   get rid of

   We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer

8. 8
   noun

   Excrement or urine.

   The cage was littered with animal waste.

Etymology

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…