waste

▪ I. waste, n.
    (weɪst)
    Forms: 3–7 wast, 4–5 waast, 6, 8 waist, 6 wayste, 4–6 Sc. vast(e, 3– waste.
    [a. OF. wast(e, dial. variant of guast(e, gast(e, partly repr. L. vāstum, neut. of vāstus waste a. (q.v. for the phonology), partly a verbal noun f. waster (guaster, gaster) waste v. Cf. Pr. gast ravage, waste, Sp., Pg. gasto expense, It. guasto ravage, damage, injury.
    In early ME. the word adopted from OF. took the place of the cognate native weste of the same meaning. In mod.Eng. the n. in some senses may be f. waste v.]
    I. Waste or desert land.
    1. a. Uninhabited (or sparsely inhabited) and uncultivated country; a wild and desolate region, a desert, wilderness. Somewhat rhetorical.

c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Ac seðen hie henen wenden, atlai þai lond unwend and bicam waste, and was roted oueral and swo bicam wildernesse. a 1300 Cursor M. 3072 Þe barn sco [sc. Hagar] dide drinc o þat wel, In þat wast þan can þai duell. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xvii. (Martha) 21 In þat vaste scho fand a tovne, þat nov is callit Terrascone. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 3487 Þare many daies be dissert he dryfes with his ost,..Be wast & be wildirnes & be watirles bournes. c 1450 Erle of Tolous 451 From them he wente into a waste. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 80 But see, the man who spacious regions gave A waste for beasts, himself deny'd a grave. a 1718 Prior Solomon i. 279 North beyond Tartary's extended Waste. 1807 Wordsw. White Doe v. 1164 Among the wastes of Rylstone Fell. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxiii, The shadowless and trackless wastes of Zahara. 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. xiii. 221 Napoleon was now..in an uncultivated country of almost boundless wastes. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 742 Is there no prophet but the voice that calls Doom upon kings, or in the waste ‘Repent’? 1871 Blackie Four Phases i. 46 Wandering about in a boggy waste. 1885 Athenæum 23 May 669/1 A sandy waste, which is scantily clad with herbage.

    b. transf. Applied, e.g., to the ocean or other vast expanse of water (often waste of waters, watery waste), to land covered with snow, and to empty space or untenanted regions of the air.

1552 in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 89 A place caulled vastum vacuum .i. the great waste asmoche to saie as a place voyde or emptie withoute the worlde where is neither fier ayre water nor earth. 1655 Waller Panegyr. Ld. Protector 41 Lords of the Worlds great Waste, the Ocean, wee Whole Forrests send to Raigne upon the Sea. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 1045 Satan..in the emptier waste, resembling Air, Weighs his spread wings. 1697 Dryden æneis vii. 310 From that dire Deluge, through the wat'ry Waste,..at last escap'd, to Latium we repair. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 309 ¶21 In Satan's Voyage through the Chaos there are several Imaginary Persons described, as residing in that immense Waste of Matter. 1724 Ramsay Vision xviii, Millions of myles throch the wyld waste. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magick i. vi. 160 The utmost extent of the waste, or expanse of space. 1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 88 Where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows The freezing Tanais thro' a waste of snows. 1757 Gray Couplet about Birds 2 The song-thrush there Scatters his loose notes in the waste of air. 1804 Moore To Marchioness Dowager Donegall 32 Those pure isles..Which bards of old, with kindly fancy, plac'd For happy spirits in th'Atlantic waste? 1804 W. L. Bowles Spir. Discov. 308 Whose volcanic fires A thousand nations view, hung like the moon High in the middle waste of heaven. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. li, As these broad black raindrops mingle with the waste of waters. 1864 D. G. Mitchell Sev. Stor. 257 A raft is floating upon an ocean waste. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) iii. 82 Showing their bare faces of precipitous rock across the dreary wastes of snow. 1892 M. Creighton Hist. Ess. ix. (1902) 266 The waste of waters which spread on the east..was not sea-water. 1892 Lady F. Verney Verney Mem. I. 198 The ‘great level’ round the isle of Ely..was..a waste of water in winter.

    c. fig.

1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xvii, His soul a rock, his heart a waste. 1825 T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn) 86 If she could at any time..have claimed the smallest spot in the ‘waste’ of George's memory. 1836 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. III. xiv. 221 The open inhospitable waste of this world. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xxxvi, Miss Brass..opening the safe, brought from it a dreary waste of cold potatoes, looking as eatable as Stonehenge. 1901 Scotsman 15 Mar. 7/4 There still stood between the House and its most urgent business a dreary waste of more than a hundred and twenty questions.

    2. A piece of land not cultivated or used for any purpose, and producing little or no herbage or wood. In legal use spec. a piece of such land not in any man's occupation, but lying common.
    In some dialects the ordinary word; otherwise rare in colloquial use.

1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 163 Vncoupled þei wenden Boþe in wareine & in waste where hem leue lyketh. 14.. Customs of Malton in Engl. Misc. (Surtees) 58 It was graunted to the for sayd Burgeses a wast of ather syde of the town. 1423 Cov. Leet Bk. 46 The Prioures wast in Hasillwod. 1580 in Lancs. & Chesh. Wills (1884) I. 72 With th' appurtennes of and all and singular the said Mannors..moores, mosses, wasts [etc.]. 1582 Durham Wills (Surtees 1860) II. 54 My house I dwell in,..and the waist adjoyninge upon the same. 1600 Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 222 One waist with two cottages thereupon builded. 1662 in Horsfield Hist. Lewes (1824) I. 179 Times for the putting the tenants cattle into the common pastures, wastes, and commons of the manor. 1727 E. Laurence Duty of Steward 59 That they do not encroach upon the Lord's Waste, by digging Stone, Sand, &c. 1786 J. Roberts Life 60 [He was] permitted to keep six or seven cows upon the waste. 1799 A. Young View Agric. Lincoln 147 At Leak and Wrangle there are some wastes, which the cottagers sometimes take in, and cultivate potatoes. 1820 Starkie Rep. Cases N.P. II. 464 It was contended on his part, that the locus in quo belonged to Lady Smith in right of her manor, as being part of the wastes of that manor. 1828 Barnewall & Cresswell Rep. K.B. VII. 305 It was contended, that as the adjoining land belonged to Roberts, the primâ facie presumption was that the waste between his land and the high road belonged also to him. 1864 Tennyson North. Farmer, Old Style vii, An' I a' stubb'd Thurnaby waäste. Ibid. x, Dubbut looök at the waäste; theer warn't nor feeäd for a cow; Nowt at all but bracken an' fuzz. 1864 ― En. Ard. 729 Behind, With one small gate that open'd on the waste, Flourish'd a little garden.

    † 3. A devastated region. Obs.

1611 Bible Isa. lxi. 4 They shall build the olde wastes, they shall raise vp the former desolations. 1697 Dryden æneis x. 572 All the leafie Nation sinks at last; And Vulcan rides in Triumph o're the Wast.

    4. Coal-mining. A disused working; a part of a mine from which the coal has been extracted.

1695 Par. Reg. St. Andrew's, Newc. in Brand Hist. Newcastle (1789) II. 501 note, [Two men] were drowned in a coal-pitt..by the breaking in of water from an old waste. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 29 There is this and that Invention found out to draw out all great Old Waists, or Drowned Collieries. 1773 Ann. Reg. 151 The foul air in an old waste of a colliery..took fire, and breaking down the barrier..between the waste and the working pit, made the most terrible explosions. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 990 In collieries which..have goaves, creeps, or crushed wastes, the disengagement of the fire-damp from these recesses is much influenced by the state of atmospheric pressure. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 64/2 The space from which the entire quantity of coal has been removed is known in different districts as the ‘goaf’, ‘gob’, or ‘waste’. 1911 Act 1 & 2 Geo. V c. 50 § 52 (2) Props shall not be withdrawn from the waste or goaf..otherwise than by means of a safety contrivance.

transf. 1812 John Wilson Agric. Renfrew. 26 The extent of excavation or waste, in these mines [the alum mines of Hurlet, Renfrews.] is about 1½ mile in length, and the greatest breadth about 3/4 of a mile.

    II. Action or process of wasting.
    5. a. Useless expenditure or consumption, squandering (of money, goods, time, effort, etc.).

1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7725 Þulke festes he wolde holde so nobliche Wiþ so gret prute & wast & so richeliche Þat [etc.]. 13.. Cursor M. 252 (Gött.) And till þaim speke i alþermast Þat ledis þair liues in mekil wast. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 7261 Rere sopers yn pryuyte, With glotonye, echone þey be; And þyr ys moche waste ynne, And gadryng of ouþer synne. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 15 Þouȝ þei hem self han neuere so muche wast of mete and drynk. Ibid. 60 For aȝenst cristis wilful pouert þei techen in dede worldly coueitise & moche wast in worldly goodis. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶813 Men oughten eschue fool largesse that men clepen wast. 1411–12 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 521 Now wold god þe waast of cloth & pryde Y-put were in exyl perpetuel. c 1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. xxxvii. 47 Grete wast was not in his hous of sotil metes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 174 b, They consumeth superfluously & spendeth in waste, in one daye, the goodes that wolde suffyse & serve for theyr necessite many dayes. c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 905 Waste, prodigalité. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen IV, i. ii. 160 Your Meanes is very slender, and your wast great. 1601 ― Twel. N. iii. i. 141 Clocke strikes. The clocke vpbraides me with the waste of time. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 218 They may not bury the corps in silke or needle-worke..for this were waste, and a worke of the Gentiles. c 1645 Milton Sonn. xii. 14 For all this wast of wealth and loss of blood. 1697 Dryden æneis x. 1295 Why these insulting Words, this waste of Breath, To Souls undaunted, and secure of Death? 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. iv. vi, Your debts mount high—ye plunge in deeper waste. 1852 Kingsley Yeast xiii, Everywhere waste? Waste of manure, waste of land, waste of muscle, waste of brain, waste of population—and we call ourselves the workshop of the world! 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. lvii, All this was done with the greatest despatch, and without the waste of a moment. 1879 Huxley Sensation Sci. & Cult. (1881) 246 The maxim that metaphysical inquiries are barren of result, and that the serious occupation of the mind with them is a mere waste of time and labour.

Proverb. 1546 [see haste n. 6]. a 1591 H. Smith Serm., Reb. Jonah (1602) E 8, It is good that men looke before they leape, hast makes wast. 1641 Sanderson Serm. ad Aulam xiii. (1689) 550 But haste maketh waste, we say. 1736 [see want n.2 3 Prov.]. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 347 Since there has been less haste there has been less waste.

    b. Phrases, to make waste, † do waste, to be wasteful.

1390 Gower Conf. II. 139, I bidde noght that thou do wast, Bot hold largesce in his mesure. c 1480 Lyt. Childr. Lyt. Bk. 56 in Babees Bk. 20 Loke þou doo noo waste. 1481 Caxton Godfrey xciii. 144 But they made grete waast & more than neded, & so by their oultrage & folye they lacked in short tyme. 1854 Patmore Angel in Ho., Betrothal 138 Long lease of his low mind befall The man who, in his wilful gust, Makes waste for one, to others all Discourteous, frigid, and unjust!

    † c. (words of) waste: useless talk. Obs.

c 1400 Destr. Troy 2547 Why fader..are yo so fer troublet At his wordys of waste, & his wit febill? 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 187 The erle perceyvynge that he hade spoken wordes of waste [se superflua dixisse]. c 1460 Towneley Myst. ii. 134 Thou Iangyls waste.

    † d. Wasted labour. Obs.

c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 2908 Thei armed hem with mochel haste; But sekirly it was but waste, For thei of Troye were mo than thai,..And sclow hem foule, when thei were met. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 6672 Folow noo ferthir, for it is waste.

    † e. in waste, in vain, to no purpose. Obs.

1340–70 Alisaunder 905 But all his werk was in waste. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xliv. (Lucy) 280 Bot al ves in wast þai wrocht. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 82 He spilleth many a word in wast That schal with such a poeple trete. c 1400 Beryn 1232 Beryn..axid aftir clothis; but it was al in wast. 1449 Pecock Repr. i. iv. 21 He presupposith tho gouernauncis, vertues, and trouthis to be bifore knowen of tho same men, and ellis in waast he schulde so speke to tho men of hem not bifore knowen. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 916 Than Wallace said: ‘In waist is that trawaill’. 1513 Douglas æneis v. viii. 24 Ther hardy Kempis all in waist let draw, Athir at vthir, mony rowtis gret. a 1553 Udall Royster D. iv. v, While my life shall last, For my friende Goodlucks sake ye shall not sende in wast. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius ix. Cc iij, Meethinkes I..go about in wast to stirre up your unwilling, and unmoveable mindes. 1556 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer Transl. Epist. A ij, Whatsoever I shoulde write therein, were but labour in waste. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 681 He thought to spende no lenger tyme in waste. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 13 [She] Laught at his foolish labour spent in waste. [1725 Watts Logic i. vi. §3 So foolish and lavish are we, that too often we use some words in mere waste, and have no ideas for them.]

    f. A profusion, lavish abundance of something.

1725 Pope Odyss. vi. 356 And there the garden yields a waste of flow'rs. 1831 Scott Ct. Rob. iii, Cooling the fragrant breeze which breathed from the flowers and shrubs, that were so disposed as to send a waste of sweets around. 1855 Tennyson Brook 191 Poor Philip, of all his lavish waste of words Remains the lean P. W. on his tomb.

    g. An instance or example of wasting.

1612 Bacon Ess., Of Dispatch (Arb.) 246 Prefaces, and passages, and excusations, and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time. c 1650 Higford Instit. (1658) 6 Use Parsimony betimes before a wast be made, for Seneca tells you, Sera est in fundo Parsimonia. Ibid. 9 Riches may be well compared unto Cisternes or Pooles, which a small stream will easily fill, if there be no leaks or wasts, but small wasts and expences continuing, and not prevented, have decieved [sic], and undone many. 1658 Whole Duty of Man viii. §12. 187 This is a waste of that which is much more precious, our time. 1780 Mirror No. 79 ¶1 But to win them by offices of kindness, or attach them by real services, they consider as a fruitless waste of time. 1867 Sir C. Dilke in Life (1917) I. vii. 76 You think it a waste of money for me to contest Chelsea. 1909 Daily Chron. 4 Mar. 7/5 The economical woman..keeps a close watch for the small wastes that eat up more principal than the big purchases. 1920 Chesterton Uses of Diversity 54 He is somewhat anticlerical; which seems a waste of talent in a country where there is no clericalism.

    6. a. Destruction or devastation caused by war, floods, conflagrations, etc. Now rare or Obs.

1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 433 b, He would doubtlesse haue made an horrible destruction and waste through oute all Germany. 1596 Edw. III, i. ii. 159 Like a cloake, doth hide From weathers Waste the vnder garnisht pride. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. iii. 18 What is it then to me, if impious Warre..Doe..all fell feats, Enlynckt to wast and desolation? 1601 Holland Pliny vi. xxix. I. 145 It was the ægyptians warres and not the Romanes that gave the wast to æthyopia. [L. Nec tamen arma Romana ibi solitudinem fecerunt.] 1657 Austen Fruit Trees Ep. Ded., There having been so great a wast and destruction of Wood. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 304 Were charity..to be the prevailing humour in the world, it would..turn industry into its proper channel, where it would not overflow to make waste and do mischief, nor be lost among the barren sands of whimsy. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 223 In three years they had committed such waste on their native land as thirty years of English intelligence and industry would scarcely repair. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 640 When since had flood, fire, earthquake, thunder, wrought Such waste and havock as the idolatries Which [etc.].

    † b. pl. Ravages. Obs.

1615 G. Sandys Trav. iv. 242 This City doth welnigh ioyne to the skirts of ætna... The eiected flames haue heretofore committed horrible wasts. 1736 I. H. Browne Pipe of Tobacco i. 20 While Wastes of War deform the teeming Coast. 1738 Wesley Psalms civ. vii, Pleas'd with the Work of thy own Hands, Thou dost the Wastes of Time repair.

    † c. concr. Something wasted or destroyed. Obs.

c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. xii. 10 Then of thy beauty do I question make That thou among the wastes of time must goe. 1640 Suckling Discont. Col. iii. (1642) E 4, Shal..This pretious Lovelinesse, Passe with other common things Among the wasts of time?

    7. Law. ‘Any unauthorized act of a tenant for a freehold estate not of inheritance, or for any lesser interest, which tends to the destruction of the tenement, or otherwise to the injury of the inheritance’ (Pollock, Law of Torts, 1887, p. 285). writ of waste (= AF. bref de wast), a writ commanding the sheriff to inhibit a tenant from an act of waste. † year, day, and waste: see year¹ 7 b. impeachment of waste: see impeachment 4 b.
    For examples of AF. wast in this use see Rolls of Parlt. I. 9/1 (1278), II. 40/1 (1330), II. 170/2 (1347).

1414 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 60/2 Moreover, to enqueren what wast was made in the Kynges Maners, fro the tyme of Kyng John.. into that day. c 1450 Godstow Reg. 317 Hit shold not be lawfull to the same sir william..to cast downe ony treys, noþere to make wast, sellyng or distroiyng, with⁓in the terme abouesaid, but for housebote. c 1475–80 in Oxf. Stud. Soc. & Legal Hist. (1914) IV. 225 In an accon of waste suyd..before the kinges Justices..for brennyng of a water Mill. 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII c. 33 Preamble, The said Dame Cicile shuld not be therof impeched of Wast. 1544 tr. Littleton's Tenures vii. 15 In such case yf the lesse make wast, y⊇ lessour shal haue agaynst hym a wryt of Wast. 1628 Coke On Litt. i. 53 There be two kinds of Wasts, viz. Voluntarie or actuall, and permissiue. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. i. 13 The King..leaves the noble Crown of England in the base condition of a Farme, subject to strip and waste by mean men; and crosses the Irish Seas with an Army. 1651 tr. Kitchin's Jurisd. (1653) 331 If a house be uncovered by suddaine tempest, it is not waste, but if the Lessee suffer that to be uncovered, that the Timber rot, it is waste. 1770 Ann. Reg. 173 Having caused a man to be apprehended who had committed waste on the estate of the earl of Donnegal. a 1845 Polson Law in Encycl. Metrop. II. 828/1 The principal incidents to a tenancy in estate tail are, (1) the right of the tenant to commit what is called waste . 1863 H. Cox Inst. ii. viii. 500 Such injunctions include those against waste where a person having only a limited interest in an estate in his occupation, threatens to wastefully cut down timber, or otherwise injure the freehold.

fig. 1679 Owen Christol. xvii. Wks. 1851 I. 216 Yet the inheritance is secured for us; and we are preserved from such offences against the supreme Lord, or committing such wastes, as should cast us out of our possession.

    8. a. The consumption or using up of material, resources, time, etc. Obs. as distinct from 5.

1568 Grafton Chron. II. 751 He had long maintayned the siege to no small wast and consumyng of his brothers treasure and riches. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxii. §10 Euill ministers of good things are as torches, a light to others, a wast to none but themselues only. 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. i. 102 'Tis they haue put him on the old mans death, To haue th' expence and wast of his Reuenues.

    † b. The consumption (of candles, etc.) at a funeral or obit. Obs.

1477–9 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 78 For the wast of ij tapres at Caustons obite, iiij d. 1506 in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bp.'s Stortford (1882) 31 Rec. of Thomas Whepyll for the waste of torches at his wife's burieng, iiijd. 1555 Churchw. Acc. St. Helen's, Abingdon (Nichols 1797) 141 For wast of the paskall and for holye yoyle, 5s 10{supd}. 1556–7 in Archæol. Jrnl. (1886) XLIII. 175 Paide to the chandler for waste of y⊇ waxe, viij{supd}.

    9. a. Gradual loss or diminution from use, wear and tear, decay or natural process. Now somewhat rare.

1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 300 Deliverances employmentes perusynges losse & wast of the Stuff takle Store & other the premisses. 1514–15 Act 6 Hen. VIII c. 9 §1 The Carder and Spynner to delyver agayn to the same clothier yerne of the same Wolle by the same..true..weight the wast therof exceptid. 1547 in Sir J. Williams Accompte (Abbotsf. Club 1836) 7 Allowaunce..for the waste of souche plate as was..delyuerde..vnto thofficers of his housholde to be daylye vsed. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. ix. 11 But beauties waste hath in the world an end. 1626 Bacon Sylva §218 Thinne Aire is better pierced; but Thicke Aire preserueth the Sound better from Wast. 1676 W. B. Touch-st. Gold & Silver Wares 3 Silver is a Mineral..that will endure melting for a long time in extream heat, with but very little wast. a 1767 M. Bruce Life & Wks. (1914) 182 Each would fondly raise Some lasting monument, to save his name Safe from the waste of years. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §90 Workmen..look upon the stone so coated, as not to be in a state of waste or decay. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 422 An old venerable Cathedral still remains here, in defiance of the waste of time, and the rude hand of reformers. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 272 The odour of all bodies that excite the sensation of smell cannot be given out without a waste of their substance. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 135 Rounded pebbles derived from the waste of..the older Apennine rocks. 1847 in Aiton Dom. Econ. (1857) 339 The repairs now required are not mere ordinary repairs, but..rebuilding rendered necessary by the waste of time. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 168 Abundant evidence of marine waste may be seen on any visit to the seaside.

    b. with reference to animal tissues and structures.

1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xliv. (1495) 257 Yf abhomynacyon comyth of fastynge and of waste of the body, men shall restore that whyche is wasted with meete and Electuaryes. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1692) 39 Which was most providently design'd to repair the wast that is daily made of them by the frequent Attrition in Mastication. 1695 New Light of Chirurg. put out 15 Sudden Waste made upon Fat Persons by violent Fevers. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 45 Thus far we have consider'd, how our Bodies acquire the Reparations for those Wastes, that are daily expended in carrying on the Laws of the Animal Oeconomy. 1796 F. Burney Camilla V. 497 To repair the wastes of strength some time yet was necessary. 1814 Mrs. J. West Alicia de Lacy IV. 247 It was that oblivion of thought which best repairs the waste of nature, and gives elasticity to the weary faculties. 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge vi, Reclining in an easy-chair before the fire, pale and weak from waste of blood, was Edward Chester. 1875 B. Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. §59 Just as no single action of the body takes place without the waste of some muscular tissue, so, it is believed, no thought takes place without some waste of the brain.

    c. A wasting of the body by disease; a consumption or decline. Now only dial.

1570 Levins Manip. 203/25 Wayst of body, tabes. 1584 Cogan Haven Health lxxii. 71 Clarie..is found by experience verie good for the back, and restoratiue in a wast. 1601 Holland Pliny xvii. xxiv. I. 540 In a wast, consumption, or fever hecticke. c 1816 Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. xix. 169 His disease was what the country people in England call a waste. 1878 Mrs. H. Wood Pomeroy Ab. I. 49 Her mother went off in a waste. 1893 ‘L. Keith’ Lisbeth vii, Your father's family going off one after the other in a waste, and nobody but me to see to them.

    d. Phys. Geog. Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea. (W. Suppl. 1902.)
    10. Phrases. a. to run to waste (rarely † to flow at waste): primarily of liquor, to flow away so as to be wasted; fig. of wealth, powers, etc., to be expended uselessly. b. to go to waste: to be wasted. c. † to grow to waste: Of a period of time, to approach its end. d. to cut to waste: lit. to cut (cloth) in a wasteful manner; fig. (? slang) to apportion (time) wastefully.

a. 1511 Guylforde's Pilgr. (Camden) 22 Moche water renneth nowe to waste. 1624 Massinger Parlt. Love ii. iii, Shall this nectar Run useless, then, to waste? 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. 41 Like that which flows at wast from the pen of some vulgar Amorist. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind i. iii, This will secure the workings of your soul from running to waste, and..even your looser moments will turn to happy account. 1803 Lamb Let. to Coleridge 20 Mar., You, like me,..reckon the lapse of time from the waste thereof, as boys let a cock run to waste. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxx, Alas! our young affections run to waste, Or water but the desert. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 412 In an age of Scotists and Thomists even his intellect might have run to waste. [1853 C. Brontë Villette viii, Beside a table, on which flared the remnant of a candle guttering to waste in the socket.] 1856 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. v. 166 The faculties of the mind..run to waste if neglected. 1863 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXIV. ii. 437 The sewage..ran to waste on the sea-shore. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. of Dyers XVI. 12 The water..is run to waste.

b. a 1500 Hist. K. Boccus & Sydracke (?1510) G iij b, There goyth of it [sc. of the sea] to wast somdele As euery man may wyt wel. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. II. 144 There is not a particle of vapour in the Universe that goes to waste. 1854 Poultry Chron. II. 42 We are importing ship-load after ship-load of guano..while hundreds of tons of poultry manure, which is ascertained to be equal in value, is suffered to go to waste in the United States. 1866 T. T. Stoddart Angler's Rambles 365 Five-sixths at the least of salmon ova go directly to waste.

c. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 250 The night growes to wast.

d. 1863 Reade Hard Cash xxxix, He..said the Firm did not care to send its stuff to ladies not in the business; I might cut it to waste. 1863 Baily's Mag. Apr. 153 An hour and a half had been ‘cut to waste’, as the sporting reporters would say, and no tidings..had been received.

    III. Waste matter, refuse.
    11. a. Refuse matter; unserviceable material remaining over from any process of manufacture; the useless by-products of any industrial process; material or manufactured articles so damaged as to be useless or unsaleable.

c 1430 Lybeaus Disc. (Cott.) 1471 For gore, and fen, and full wast, That was out ykast. 1764 in Sixth Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec. App. ii. 133 The Refuse or Waste used in the making of Allom, called Allom Slam. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. Customs (1821) 323 The above Duty on Cotton Wool, or Waste of Cotton Wool,..is to be charged [etc.]. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xix. (1842) 532 The object of the preceding directions is to enable the economical experimenter to cut up into useful forms, old glass, which would otherwise be thrown away as waste. 1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 9, I may instance another thing in which the worth of what in many places is valueless refuse is exemplified, in the matter of ‘waste’, as waste paper is always called in the trade. 1863 Technologist III. 358 All the fibre and gluten wastes of the maize plant which are precipitated during the process of extracting the fibres, are used for manufacturing paper. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 16 Three children..play'd Among the waste and lumber of the shore, Hard coils of cordage, swarthy fishing-nets, [etc.]. 1902 J. E. Wood Farden Ha' xviii, The surrounding country (the aspect of which was scarred by pits, and distorted by black heaps of ‘waste’).

    † b. fig. Offscourings, dregs, worthless people.

1592 Nashe P. Penilesse F 3 There is a certaine waste of the people for whome there is no vse, but warre.

    c. = cotton-waste.

1864 Chambers's Jrnl. 16 July 460/2 Smith the driver..standing upon the foot-plate of No. 69, leisurely attempting to remove the surplus oil from his black hands with a very suspicious piece of ‘waste’. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 Waste, cotton refuse for cleaning machinery. 1909 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 315/2 The old order of Engineer Officer..was swaddled in ‘waste’ rather than sail-cloth, and smelt not of pitch but of warm oil.

    d. Printing, etc. The surplus sheets of a work. See also quot. 1888.

1785 W. Tooke in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 430 What is called in typographical language the waste of works printed at the Academy, is seldom or never preserved. 1841 Savage Dict. Printing 810. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab., Waste, surplus sheets of a book beyond the plus copies. Also spoilt sheets used for running up colour on a machine, etc.

    e. Coal-mining. (See quot.)

1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 278 Waste. 2. (North) very small coal or slack.

    12. † a. An overflow of surplus water. Obs. b. A pipe, conduit, or other contrivance for carrying off waste matter or surplus water, steam, etc. Cf. waste-pipe

1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1312/1 Means is made, by a standard with one cocke at Holborne bridge to conueie the wast. Ibid. 1348/2 Vp vnto the northwest corner of Leaden hall..where the waste of the first maine pipe ran first this yeare. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 262 He went and washed his hands at the waste [Fr. russeau] of the well. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 224 If 'tis made very sloaping on each side 'tis the better, leaving a waste to carry off your waste Water in times of Floods or Rains. 1877 S. S. Hellyer Plumber v. 47 If more than one basin is fixed upon the same waste, the size should be proportionately increased. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 48 Have the sink deep, as it can, by plugging the waste with a cock through which the glass tube passes, be utilised for washing purposes.

    c. Waste water, effluent; spec. that which is free of excrement. Cf. soil n.³ 7.
    The distinction between waste and soil is commoner in the combs. with pipe.

1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 715/2 To connect a water-closet soil-pipe with sinks and basins..is to multiply possibilities for the spread of disease within the house, and it is strongly advisable to convey the waste from them by a separate pipe. 1913 E. H. Blake Drainage & Sanitation vii. 239 We may next consider the kinds of waste pipe... They comprise rain-water pipes.., soil pipes taking the wastes from closets and housemaids' sinks, and pipes taking the wastes from baths, lavatories, and sinks. 1959 Goodin & Downing Domestic Sanitation v. 127 Sanitary fitments, may be divided broadly into those intended to receive the wastes of the human body, and those designed for dirty, soapy or greasy water. 1973 [see soil n.3 7]. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 28 Aug. 12/3 One theory not in the report was that frozen plumbing may have caused a backup of wastes and a contamination of the water system. 1978 T. Pettit Home Plumbing x. 51/2 Waste from WCs is discharged into the soil and vent system of pipework.

    IV. Combinations.
    13. Obvious combinations, as (sense 1) waste-dwelling adj.; (sense 5) waste-preventing adj., waste-preventor; (sense 11) waste-collector, waste-dealer, waste-disposal, waste-pit, waste-tip (tip n.⁵ 4 b).

1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 9, ‘I don't know how it is, sir,’ said one *waste collector,..‘but paper gets scarcer or else I am out of luck.’

1876 I. Banks Manch. Man xviii. (1902) 79 Nadin..followed up the clue to a *waste⁓dealer's who bought at his own price workpeople's ‘waste’ (i.e. warp, weft, silk, &c. remaining after work was completed). 1882 W. Westall Tales & Trad. Switzerland 289 ‘A doctor! What for?’ interrupted the retired waste⁓dealer.

1968 E. A. Powdrill Vocab. Land Planning iv. 64 Industrial land does not include..land for..*waste disposal (where this occupies a significant area detached from the industrial process). 1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society vii. 91 We now have a good idea of the extensive damage done in the areas of Lake Baikal, the Volga, the Caspian and the Aral seas, and other Soviet areas of industrial waste-disposal.

1900 A. Lang Hist. Scot. I. iv. 70 The elder gods may have been degraded to *waste-dwelling demons.

1906 R. A. S. Macalister Bible Sidelights 135 That it was a temple of some sort was indicated..by a *waste-pit full of sheep-bones, apparently those of sacrificial victims.

1884 M{supc}Laren Spinning 173 With *waste-preventing machines much more progress has been made.

1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 94/1 New English Wash-out and noiseless *Waste-preventor Cistern.

1906 Victoria County Hist. Cornw. I. 520/2 The rock..is taken.., the useless to the *waste tip, and the good to the deposit floors.

    14. Special combinations: waste-basket (now chiefly U.S.) = waste-paper basket; hence waste-basket v., to put in the waste-paper basket; waste-bin, a dustbin; waste-box Mining (see quot.); waste-cock, a cock to regulate the discharge of waste water; waste disposal unit (see quot. 1967); waste-disposer = waste disposal unit above; waste-drain, a drain for carrying off waste water; waste-gate, -hatch, (a) a gate or hatch for regulating the outflow of waste water; (b) Engin., a device in a turbocharger which regulates the pressure at which exhaust gases pass to the turbine by opening or closing a vent to the external atmosphere; waste-heap, (a) a pile of refuse matter; (b) transf. in Cards, a pile of cards formed from the accumulation during the course of a game of those which cannot be played (cf. rubbish heap s.v. rubbish n. (and a.) 3 b); waste heat, heat produced as the by-product of some process; waste-heat boiler, a boiler employing this; waste-hole, a hole for the discharge of superfluous water; waste-inspector, a water-company's or municipality's official employed to report cases of waste of water; waste maker [f. title of book: see quot. 1961], a manufacturer of consumer goods that are intended not to be durable or to be partially wasted so that the demand for new goods is kept high; waste-man Mining, a man whose duty is to inspect the waste (sense 4), and to secure the proper ventilation of the mine; waste mould, in Sculpture, a simple negative mould which has to be broken to release the cast inside it; so waste moulding; cf. piece mould s.v. piece n. 23; waste-pallet Organ-building, see pallet n.³ 6; waste-pipe, a pipe to carry off waste water or steam; also spec. a pipe for the drainage of effluent from sinks, baths, etc., in contrast to a soil-pipe; waste plug = plug n. 1 b, † 2 k; waste silk, the inferior silk from the outside of cocoons and from cocoons out of which the moths have been allowed to escape; waste-sluice, a sluice for regulating the outflow of waste water; waste-spout, a spout for the issue of waste-water; waste-way U.S., a channel for the passage of waste water; waste-weir (see quots.); waste-yard ? Obs., ? a yard for the reception of odds and ends of little value.

1850 Lytton My Novel ii. vi, Public men have such odd out-of-the-way letters that their *waste-baskets are never empty. 1868 ‘Holme Lee’ B. Godfrey lv, Basil tore the paper.., and thrust it into the waste-basket. 1913 J. Webster Daddy-Long-Legs 35 If my letters bore you you can always toss them into the waste-basket.

1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. (1917) II. xxix. 514 Send me the pages with your corrections on them, and *waste-basket the rest. 1900 ― Man that corrupted etc. 127 Indefinite testimonies might properly be waste-basketed, since there is evidently no lack of definite ones procurable.

1915 Daily Tel. 14 Aug. 10/7 If all the scraps after meals..be carefully kept, instead of..put into the *waste-bin or burned.

1860 Engl. & For. Mining Gloss. (ed. 2) 66 (Newcastle) *Waste boxes, boxes in which the waste water of the pumping-pit is conveyed from the rings.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 317 He is able..so to adjust the cock that the requisite supply shall go to the boiler, without entirely shutting the *waste⁓cock.

1967 Gloss. Sanitation Terms (B.S.I.) 63 *Waste disposal unit, an electrically operated mechanical device for reducing kitchen garbage into fragments small enough to be flushed into the drainage system. 1968 R. V. Beste Repeat Instructions vi. 64 His first conscious memory was of being in the kitchen stuffing the torn pieces into the waste disposal unit. 1977 Evening Post (Nottingham) 27 Jan. 14/4 (Advt.), Lounge, hall, fitted cupboards, fully fitted kitchen with waste disposal unit.

1962 Which? Mar. 82/1 There are obvious advantages..in being able to get rid of kitchen scraps straight down the drain, with a *waste disposer. 1980 A. N. Wilson Healing Art vi. 62 A new sun lounge..a waste-disposer in the sink.

1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §32 A large cock in the bottom of the receiving tank, communicating with the *waste drain.

1791 R. Mylne 2nd Rep. Thames 11 The *Waste and Buck Gates are quite ruinous. 1948 Shell Aviation News No. 115. 19/1 The closed wastegate limitation is the condition where all of the available exhaust gas energy is required to drive the compressor, and all of the exhaust gas is directed through the turbine. 1981 Pop. Hot Rodding Feb. 22/1 It will be a relatively simple matter of welding in sections of bent tubing to make the necessary connections (including a waste-gate, should one be required). 1983 Which? Dec. 559/1 So a valve is needed—the wastegate—which opens when the pressure is at its maximum safe level to divert some of the exhaust gases away from the turbine.

1705 Act 4 & 5 Anne c. 8 (21) §5 One Scuttle or small Hatch of a Foot Square in the *Waste Hatch or Water course in the direct Stream wherein no Water Wheel standeth [etc.].

1873 B. Stewart Conserv. Energy v. 153 Universally diffused heat forms what we may call the great *waste-heap of the universe. 1892 ‘L. Hoffmann’ Illustr. Bk. Patience Games 4 If its [sc. the card's] nature does not allow of its being so played, it is laid face upwards in front of the player, the cards so deposited being known as the ‘waste-’ or ‘rubbish-heap’. 1913 ― Sel. Patience Games 5 The cards so dealt with being known as the ‘waste-heap’ or ‘rubbish-heap’. 1915 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 702/2 Fosse Eight is a mighty waste-heap. 1975 Way to Play 145/3 Waste pile or heap, cards from the stock that cannot immediately be played onto the layout are sometimes placed face up in one or more waste piles, to be brought back into the game as appropriate.

1908 A. G. King Pract. Steam & Hot Water Heating xxvii. 343 When no *waste heat is available, an ordinary type of pipe heater may be used. 1930 Engineering 8 Aug. 188/3 The utilization of exhaust gases in waste-heat boilers had improved the efficiency of the large gas engine. 1972 R. G. Kazmann Mod. Hydrol. (ed. 2) iv. 130 The remainder of this energy, ‘waste heat’, must be disposed of into the immediate environment of the power plant. 1982 W. F. Owen Energy in Wastewater Treatment xii. 281 Three basic types of heat recovery equipment are typically used in wastewater heat recovery systems: shell-and-tube exchangers, waste heat boilers, and heat wheels.

1839 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. II. 436/1 The same adjustment may be made by stopping the pump, and letting out the water from the *waste-holes.

1898 Daily News 17 June 3/3 A turncock and *waste inspector, in the service of the Vauxhall Waterworks Company.

1961 V. Packard Waste Makers v. 48 In some cases the consumers have no choice but to be *waste makers because of the way products are sold to them. Many paste pots come with brushes built into the cover, and the brushes fail..to reach the bottom... Thus millions of ‘empty’ paste jars are thrown away with a few spoonfuls of paste still in them. 1970 G. Jackson Let. 17 June in Soledad Brother (1971) 282 You dig, no waste makers, nor harnesses on production.

1812 J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1857) I. 96 The *waste-men or ventilators of the mine. 1825 E. Mackenzie View Northumbld. (ed. 2) I. 90 Wastemen, persons that daily examine the state of the workings, and see that they are properly ventilated. 1891 Labour Commission Gloss., Wastemen, generally old men who are employed in building pillars for the support of the roof in the waste, i.e. old workings and airways; and in keeping the airways open and in good order.

1929 F. J. Glass Modelling & Sculpture viii. 73 You now proceed to chip away the white portion of the *waste mould. 1971 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 5 Mar. 8/2 From this brittle clay an impression—a ‘waste-mould’—is taken, from which a plaster cast is made.

1911 A. Toft Modelling & Sculpture vi. 90 The term ‘*waste moulding’ implies that the mould is only made to serve the purpose of taking one cast. 1918 H. H. Stansfield Sculpture ii. 9 In waste moulding the plaster is chipped away so that the mould is destroyed.

1881 C. A. Edwards Organs 44 The *waste-pallet is an arrangement corresponding to the safety-valve in the steamboiler.

c 1512 Archæologia LVIII. 301 Boþe þ⊇ suspirel and þ⊇ *waste pipe awoyde ther water in a gotir of breke. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 362/1 Aqua caduca,..water that runneth ouer, or at the waste pipes or spowts of condut heads. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 211 To empty the Bason entirely.., which is done by means of..a Waste-Pipe at the Bottom of it. 1876, etc. [see soil-pipe s.v. soil n.3 9]. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 39 The steam which issues from the waste-pipe being cooled down by contact with the cold air. 1907 J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6) 35 To connect the waste pipe with nearest drain or gutter. 1946 E. Molloy Plumbing & Gas-Fitting x. 221/2 For a waste pipe from a bath, sink, bidet, or lavatory basin discharging into a soil pipe from a water-closet, or a waste pipe from a slop sink, the Model By-laws specify ‘a suitable trap adequately secured against destruction of the water seal’.

1877 G. E. Waring Sanitary Condition City & Country Houses 79 If the *waste plug is operated by a handle rising the slab, there is a considerable length of pipe between it and the bottom of the basin. 1882 S. S. Hellyer Lect. Sci. & Art Sanitary Plumbing v. 193 These water-closets were made of marble—a the pan; b the waste-plug; c the service-pipe; d the overflow. 1965 Waste plug [see plug n. 1 b].

1797 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 486/1 Before you begin to wind, you must prepare your cocoons..stripping them of that *waste silk that surrounds them, and which served to fasten them to the twigs. 1875 [see spun ppl. a. 1 a]. 1921 Waste silk [see schappe].

1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 327 As a *waste-sluice, the most convenient and simple, in a mill of this kind, is the trap-sluice.

1667 J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 19 Few words run then at the *waste spout.

1881 Thayer Log-cabin to White Ho. xii. 149 There was a *waste-way just ahead. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 621/2 Above these..is a wasteway..over which the surplus water can pour.

1793 R. Mylne Rep. Thames 23 There was Seven Inches of Water running over at the *Waste Weir at Boulter's Old Lock. 1840 H. S. Tanner Canals & Rail Roads U.S. 264 Waste weir, a water guage; a cut at the side of a canal by which the surplus water of canals is carried off. 1868 Chamb. Encycl. X. 516/2 There is also the waste-weir, for the purpose of preventing a reservoir embankment being overtopped by floods.

c 1620 Moryson Itin. iv. v. i. (1903) 460 Theire houses, (which haue no such *wastyardes about them as euery Farmers house hath with vs). 1826 Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 182 And rick-yard, farm-yard, waste-yard, horse-paddock, and all round about, seemed to be swarming with fowls, ducks, and turkeys. 1854 Dickens Hard T. i. xi, In the waste-yard outside [the mill], the steam from the escape pipe, the litter of barrels and old iron, the shining heaps of coals, the ashes everywhere, were shrouded in a veil of mist and rain.

▪ II. waste, a.
    (weɪst)
    Also 4–7 wast, 4–5 waast, Sc. vast(e, 5–7 (chiefly Sc.) waist, 6 waiste, Sc. waest.
    [ME., a. OF. wast, dial. var. of guast, gast = Pr. gast, Pg. gasto, It. guasto:—Rom. *wasto, repr. (with influence from the cogn. and synonymous OHG. wuosti) L. vāstus waste, desert, unoccupied (distinct from văstus vast a.).
    The adopted OF. word took the place of the early ME. weste a. (cogn. w. L. vāstus). In mod.E. it seems to have coalesced with the contracted pa. pple. of waste v. and with the attributive use of waste n.]
    1. Of land: a. Uncultivated and uninhabited or sparsely inhabited. Sometimes with stronger implication: Incapable of habitation or cultivation; producing little or no vegetation; barren, desert. See also wasteland.

c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 205/180 Al-a-boute in a waste londe. c 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 51 Affryca..hath more wyldernes and waste londe, for grete brennynge and hete of þe sonne, þan Europa. c 1420 Wyntoun Cron. ii. ix. 787 He sende wiþe þaim sum of his men Til Irlande, þat was nocht ȝit þen Inhabit, bot was wast haly. c 1480 Henryson Test. Cress. 588 My Spreit I leif to Diane,..To walk with hir in waist Woddis and Wellis. c 1500 Melusine i. 18 He began within her land, that was wast & deserte for to byld..fayre tounes & strong Castels. 1535 Coverdale Wisd. xi. 2 They..pitched their tentes in y⊇ waist deserte. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 103 We trauailed directly Eastward, hauing a Sea on the South side of vs, and a waste desert on the North. 1635 D. Dickson Hebr. xii. 22. 301 Vagabonds, wandring abroad in a waste Wildernesse. c 1639 Sir W. Mure Ps. xxix. 8 Yea, at the dreadfull voyce of God, Waist Kadesh desart quaikes. 1653 Holcroft Procopius, Pers. Wars i. xii. 20 [They] ever neglected the Province beyond the Euphrates, being without water and wast. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 7, I..now sing..Recover'd Paradise to all mankind,..And Eden rais'd in the wast Wilderness. 1819 Scott Leg. Montrose xi, He therefore plodded patiently on through a waste and savage wilderness. 1843 De Quincey Ceylon Wks. 1890 VII. 436 Ceylon has not much of waste ground, in the sense of being irreclaimable—for of waste ground in the sense of being unoccupied she has an infinity.

    b. fig. Desolate, barren. Cf. 4.

c 1825 W. M. Praed Poems, Farewell iv, And still the shadowy hope was rife That once in this waste weary life My path might cross with thine. 1839 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. IV. xii. 215 The world, in which our duties lie, is as waste as the wilderness. 1845 ― Ess. Developm. 314 Dreary and waste was the condition of the Church. 1851 Carlyle Sterling iii. vi, Our conversation was waste and logical, I forget quite on what, not joyful and harmoniously effusive. 1908 W. M. Ramsay Luke i. 3 Nothing in the whole history of literary criticism has been so waste and dreary as great part of the modern critical study of Luke.

Comb. 1839 Carlyle Chartism v. 133 It is not chaos and a waste-whirling baseless Phantasm. 1851 ― Sterling i. v, This waste-weltering epoch. 1871 ― in Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 141 On the solitary coach-roof, under the waste⁓blowing skies.

    c. In weaker sense: Not applied to any purpose; not utilized for cultivation or building.

1439 Charters etc. Edin. (1871) 64 Beside the vaste lande neire byside the house of John of Turyng. 1480 Cov. Leet Bk. 445 Be lawe of þis lande, the lorde of þe waste soyle may surcharge and put þerin what nombre [of cattle] hym lykes. Ibid. 472 The seid Priour & Couent seyn that þe same grounde is parcell of the Churcheyarde, and was no wast-grounde. 1531 Abstr. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1897) IV. 32 Ane waest bornesteyd, lyand into Sant Tenewsgaet. 1538 Starkey England iii. 73 That we haue so much wast ground here in our cuntrey, hyt ys not to be attrybute to the nature of the erthe..but [etc.]. 1543 tr. Act 13 Edw. I, c. 45 Where as in a statute made at Merton it was graunted that lordes of wast woodes and pastures myght improwe the sayde wast woodes and pastures, [etc.]. 1551 Crowley Pleas. & Payne 479 Caste downe the hedges and stronge mowndes, That you have caused to be made Aboute the waste and tyllage groundes. 1690 Locke Govt. ii. v. §42 Land that is left wholly to Nature, that hath no Improvement of Pasturage, Tillage, or Planting, is called, as indeed it is, Waste. 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6398/1 A Piece of waste Ground for Building. 1820 Starkie Rep. Cases N.P. II. 464 The lords of the manor of Hampstead had, from time immemorial, exercised the right of granting out parcels of the waste lands within the manor, with the consent of the copy⁓holders. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes viii, A melancholy piece of waste ground with frowzy grass. 1858 J. B. Norton Topics 225 The district officers had not had leisure to settle all the contending applications for permission to take up waste lands. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 109 Let the fowler confine himself to waste places and to the mountains. 1900 W. H. Hudson Nat. in Downland 41 Thistly, and weedy waste lands. 1908 W. M. Ramsay Luke v. 179 The soil originally was waste and valueless.

    † d. transf. ? Uncultured mentally. Obs.

? 1541 Coverdale Confut. Standish i j, Yf I shuld saye ye were puft vp, ignoraunt, a waist brayne, et cete...ye wolde happlie be angrie.

    † 2. Of former places of habitation or cultivation, buildings, etc.: Devastated, ruinous. Obs.

a 1300 Cursor M. 18890 Þe psalm sais, thoru þe haligast, His woning stede be wild and wast. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1725) 62 Þer þe Inglis had bigged, he mad it wast & bare. 1375 Barbour Bruce vii. 151 And than the formast cumin weir Till a vast [v.r. waist] husbandis hous. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxix. (Placidas) 326 [Satan] Kist don castellis in hast, & towne & tilth al mad wast. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 32 The toun is wast. 14.. Polit. Poems (Rolls) II. 244 An old castel, and not repaired, With wast walles and wowes wide. 1491 Newminster Cartul. (1878) 251 Two waste chapellez. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cclxix. 163 He..rested hym in certayne olde wast & broken howses. 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings xix. 25 Now haue I caused it for to come, that contencious stronge cities mighte fall in to a waist heape of stones. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa v. 236 [He] built a strong forte vpon the sea shore, and repaired an other which had lien a long time waste. a 1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 53 The which Abbey..was afterward destroyed by Pyrates..and so continued waste unto the time of Malachias, Bishop of Armach. 1823 Scott Quentin D. Introd., A very large and well-proportioned saloon;..but so waste and dilapidated, that [etc.].

    3. a. to lie waste: To remain in an uncultivated or ruinous condition.

1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1725) 239 It lies now waste & lorn, half may þei not tille. 1535 Coverdale Isa. i. 7 Youre londe lieth waist, youre cities are brent vp. 1557 Tusser 100 Points Husb. 94 Thryfallowe betime, for destroing of weede:..And better thou warte, so to doe for thy hast: then (hardnes) for slougth make thy lande to lie wast. 1653 [see lie v.1 8]. 1890 D. Davidson Mem. Long Life ix. 214 At the close of the Pindaree war many villages were lying waste in the valley of the Nerbudda for more than thirty years.

    b. to lay waste: to devastate, ravage (land, buildings).

1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxix. 7 For they haue deuoured Iacob, and layed waiste his dwellinge place. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 19 All the country aboute layde waste. 1563–4 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 257 Layand thairthrow waist ane grete part of the cuntre. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxiv. vii, Not one house doth stand..But they by fire have laide it waste. 1610 R. Niccols Winter Nt.'s Vis., Robt. Dk. Norm. l, There all the host as towards Nice we past, With spoilefull hands laid all the countrie wast. 1611 Bible Ezek. xxxv. 4, I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate. c 1680 Beveridge Serm. (1729) II. 549 When Judas Maccabeus had..repaired the temple at Jerusalem after it had been..laid waste. 1796 Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. 1843 II. 273 Which, like columns of locusts, have laid waste the fairest part of the world. 1824 Campbell Theodric 346 For war laid waste his native land once more. 1879 C. M. Yonge Cameos Ser. iv. 42 Villages were burnt and laid waste. 1890 S. Lane-Poole Barbary Corsairs i. ix. 96 He laid waste the Apulian coast.

fig. 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. i. v. 14 [This] is a sign they are stark naught, and that Pride has laid wast their Intellectuals. 1680 W. A[llen] Persuas. Peace & Unity Pref. p. xlviii. Because they laid waste Charity in a great measure by their divisions and contentions. 1845–6 Trench Huls. Lect. Ser. ii. viii. 275 To hinder him from utterly laying waste his moral life.

    † 4. a. Of speech, thought, or action: Profitless, serving no purpose, idle, vain. Obs.

1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1552 Þys nunne was of dedys chaste, But þat she spake wurdys waste She made many of here felawys Þenke on synne for her sawys. Ibid. 1586 Here wurdys were al vyle & waste. c 1330 ― Chron. Wace (Rolls) 9359 Þe kyng sey þe sege was wast. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 2184 Haly men thogh[t] þis lyf bot wast, þarfor þair yhernyng til God was mast. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xvii. 14 For he hath maad my couenant wast [Vulg. irritum fecit; 1388 he made voide]. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems iv. 177 Alle þe þouȝtes ben but wast Wiþoute contemplacioun. c 1430 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 211 My waast expensis y wole with-drawe; Now, certis, ‘waast’ weel callid þei be, for þei were spent, my boost to blowe. c 1440 York Myst. xii. 196 Saue þe, dame, from sak of synne, And wisse þe fro all werkis wast! 1465 Marg. Paston in P. Lett. II. 217 For as for any indytementes that we schuld labor a yenst them it is but wast werk. 1583 Rich Phylotus (1835) 21 Alas..suche wishes are but waste, and vnpossible it is, that any suche thing should happen. a 1592 Greene Alphonsus iv. iii. 1411 Ile lay my life that, ere this day be past, You shall perceiue these tidings all be waste. 1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence, Heautontim. iv. iv, He shall make but a wast errand [L. frustra veniet].

    † b. quasi-adv. In vain, to no purpose. Obs.

1418 26 Pol. Poems xiv. 76 Spende waste, passyng his rent, For suche a kyngdom haþ ben shent. c 1440 York Myst. xlii. 87 And spekis now no whare my worde waste. a 1585 Montgomerie Flyting 690 Gif that my invention wars thine then, Without the whilk thou might haue barked waist.

    † 5. Void, destitute of. Sc. Obs.

c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. (Wemyss) lxxxix. 2916 For statut law first ordanit he That..all ydolis were bot waist Off godheid, and deuillis ware. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. vii. 177 Our large feildis and boundis all betwene Left desolate and waist of induellaris. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 208 In the meine tyme King Eugenie and the Peychtes Inuadet Britannie wast of men of weir, quhen na campe lay in it.

    † 6. Superfluous, needless. Obs.

c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 5 Þei stryuen nyȝt and day who of hem may bilde gaiest wast housis. Ibid. 14 Þei gederen to hem self many wast and precious cloþes. Ibid. 60 Prelatis..lyue so contrariously aȝenst here [the apostles'] pore lif, in wast seruauntis, in grete fatte hors & nedles. 1382 ― Eccl. ii. 26 To the synnere forsothe he ȝaf tormenting and wast bisynesse [Vulg. curam superfluam]. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 75 Sum supprise wiþ seruil chargis our religioun, þat our Lord Iħu Crist wold to be fre, in so wast halowing of sacramentis, so þat þe condicoun of Jewis is more suffurable. 1618 W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. (1623) 34 The waste boughs closely and skilfully taken away, would giue vs store of fences and fewell.

    † 7. Of time, leaves in a book: Spare, unoccupied, unused. Of buildings or rooms: Unoccupied, empty. Obs.

1574 Satir. Poems Reform. xlii. 140 Ȝe se out throw this land How mony waist Kirkis thair dois stand But outher Prayers or Preiching. 1589 Greene Orpharion (1599) 4, I would bestow a little wast time while my Sheepe grase so hard, to holde thee chat. 1615 Life Death etc. Lady Jane Gray C 2, Offering to close vp the book shee found in the end thereof some few leaues of cleane paper vnwritten;..shee took penne and inke and in those wast leaues wrote a most Godly and learned exhortation. 1717 Berkeley Tour in Italy Wks. 1901 IV. 253 A large waste inn (i.e. little inhabited for the size, having [been] the country palace of some nobleman). 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 217 It is frequently to be met with in large waste houses. 1729 Law Serious C. xii. (1732) 200 All the hours that are not devoted either to repose, or nourishment, are look'd upon by Succus as waste or spare time. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 156, I was locked up and confined in a waste room. Ibid. III. 63, I took up my lodging in a waste hut. Ibid. 69 We took shelter in a waste barn.

    † 8. Of a person: ? Worthless. Obs.

1616 B. Jonson Epigr. xlvi, Is this the Sir, who, some wast wife to winne A knight-hood bought, to goe a wooing in?

    9. a. Of materials, incidental products, etc.: Eliminated or thrown aside as worthless after the completion of a process; refuse.

1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. Pref. A 3, How waste and useless would many of the Productions of this and other Countries be, were it not for Manufactures? 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 389 Temporary manures, such as soot, bone⁓dust,..waste yeast..and liquid manures,..are most advantageously applied on the surface of the ground. 1857 Dickens Dorrit. i. ix, The waste droppings of the pump. 1868 Joynson Metals 38 One striking feature of the practical science of the day is the attempts which it has made..to utilise the waste products of our manufactures. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. of Dyers XVI. 5 It is obtained from the waste liquors. 1907 J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6) 33 To carry off the waste developer and washing water.

    b. Said of the excreta of animal bodies.

1836 A. Combe Digest. (1842) 354 Besides the bowels, there are several other channels by which the waste materials of the body pass out. 1908 Animal Managem. (War Office) 16 The duty of the kidneys is to filter waste matters from the blood as it circulates through them.

    c. waste water (now freq. written as one word), (a) superfluous water, or water that has served its purpose, allowed to run away; (b) water that has been used in some industrial process; (c) sewage; also attrib. as waste-water pail, waste pipe. waste steam, the superfluous steam discharged from a boiler, or the spent steam discharged from the cylinder of a steam-engine; also attrib. in waste-steam pipe.

c 1450 in Archæologia LVIII. 301 The goter of breke for þe waste watre. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 212 This Waste-Water is carried away in Drains. 1791 R. Mylne in Rep. Engin. Thames Navig. 33 A gauged long weir should be run across the River, at the waste water draw-lock..and another, upon the Stone tumbling bay. 1839 R. S. Robinson Naut. Steam Eng. 122 The waste steam pipe is generally of cast iron or copper, terminating at its upper end in a bell mouth. Ibid. 148 The oil, &c., put into the cylinders..is rapidly carried away through the waste water pipe into the sea. 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 313 When the steam in the boiler exceeds its proper pressure it raises the valve and escapes by a pipe called the waste-steam-pipe. 1854 Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Techn. (ed. 2) I. 100 A current of hot air produced by a fan driven by the waste steam from the apparatus. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 6130, Foot bath, hot-water jug, and waste-water pail. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 Waste-water, water from old workings. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 27 June 6-c/3 The liquifaction process could give off up to 4.8 million gallons of wastewater per day and..there could be another 100 tons of solid waste generated each day by the coal scrubbing process. 1977 N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 2-12/7 (Advt.), C/1073: M. K. Morrison—to discharge wastewater from State Highway No 1 into Alexandra Creek headwaters..in connection with quarrying operations at Cuthill, Albany. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. d 3/1 Stephen J. Tencza, former project engineer with the Pima County Department of Wastewater Management, has joined John S. Collins & Associates as a project engineer for the firm's sanitary engineering department.

    d. Of manufactured articles: Rejected as defective. Also, (e.g. of sheets of a printed book) produced in excess of what can be used.

1842 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 201/1, 2 per cent. of waste-castings are made. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab., Waste cards, defective or rejected cards, usually sold at a cheaper rate than perfect ones. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. p. xxix, Intended for the purpose of using up waste negatives by mounting.

    10. As complement in certain phrases. † to fly waste, of a missile, to be discharged uselessly (obs.). to run waste (? rare) = to run to waste (see waste n. 10).

1797 Brydges Homer Trav. II. 330 But this good broom⁓staff ne'er flies waste. 1814 Q. Rev. XI. 71 Savages, who suffer the productions of the earth, as well as their own moral and intellectual faculties, to run waste. 1891 M. M. Dowie Girl in Karp. xx. 274 The talent that was running waste among the village people.

▪ III. waste, v.
    (weɪst)
    Forms: 3–7 wast, 4 wost(e, Sc. vast, 4–5 waast(e, 5 vaast, 5–6 wayst(e, 5–6, 8 waist, 6 Sc. vaist, 3– waste. Also 4–5 pa. tense and pple. wast(e.
    [a. AF., north-eastern OF. waste-r, dial. var. of OF. guaster, gaster (mod.F. gâter to spoil) = Pr. guastar, gastar to devastate, spoil, Sp. gastar, Pg. guastar, to spend, devastate, It. guastare to devastate, damage:—Com. Rom. *wastare, repr. (with influence from the cognate Teut. synonym *wōstjan: see weste v.) L. vāstāre, f. vāst-us adj. desert, desolate, whence Com. Rom. *wasto: see waste a. The verb first appears in English in the 13th c., superseding the native synonym weste v., which is etymologically cognate.]
    I. Transitive uses.
    1. To lay waste, devastate, ravage, ruin (a land or town, its inhabitants, property, etc.).

c 1205 Lay. 22575 [They] scullen þi lond wasten and þine leoden aslan. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2880 Þis lond þat was so riche [they] wastede al to noȝte. a 1300 Cursor M. 19479 Fast þai ras..Gain hali kirc, it for to wast. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1178 He wast wyth werre þe wones of þorpes. 1463 Stat. Roll Irel. 3 Edw. IV p. 185 Brannyng destruyng and wastyng al the said Ormond is lordships. 1535 Coverdale 2 Chron. xxiv. 7 Athalia & hir sonnes haue waisted the house of God. 1591 Drayton Harm. Church, Song of Moses & Israelites v, Euen as the fire doth the stubble wast. 1596 Edw. III, iii. iii. 21 Some of their strongest cities we haue wonne,..And others wasted. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. § 70. 117 An Epidemicall plague wasted the whole world for three yeares together. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 567 Where casual fire Had wasted woods on Mountain or in Vale. 1798 Southey Battle of Blenheim viii, With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 326 He wasted the lands of the Mackintoshes. 1879 Froude Cæsar xvii. 285 He fell suddenly on the Nervii with four legions, seized their cattle, wasted their country.

absol. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 784 For now I see Peace to corrupt no less then Warr to waste. 1849 Aytoun Lays Scot. Cavaliers (ed. 2) 73 The Moors have come from Africa To spoil and waste and slay.

    2. Law. To destroy, injure, impair, damage (property); to cause to deteriorate in value; to suffer to fall into decay. Cf. waste n. 7.

c 1450 Godstow Reg. 240 So nathelesse that they shold not hegge, wast, nother turne hit [a wood] into tylthe. 1531 St.-German's Doctor & Stud. i. xxiii. 37 To restore the place wasted immedyatlye after the waste done. 1543 tr. Act 6 Edw. I, c. 5 And who that is attaynted of wast, shal lese the thing wasted. 1581 Lambarde Eiren. ii. vii. (1588) 291 If a man command one to set fire on the house of A,..and by kindling the same fire the house of B. is wasted also. 1628 Coke On Litt. i. 355 b, In an Action of Wast..the place wasted is the principall. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. x. (1677) 236 In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses; 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle, 14 that were wasted.

    3. To consume, use up, wear away, exhaust, diminish (a thing) by gradual loss; † to reduce in numbers (a family); † to wear out (clothes); † to sell out (an edition); † to evaporate (a liquid). Also with away. Obs. exc. with mixture of sense 9.

c 1230 Hali Meid. 29 Þer as muchel is, eauer se þer mare is, se ma beoð þat hit wasteð. c 1350 Leg. Rood iii. 746 For so þai trowed þat mens fete..Suld cum and ga all ouer þat tre So þat it suld wasted be. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xviii. (Egipciane) 1002 Vthyr clathis had I nane þane I brocht oure flume Iordane; bot in few ȝeris clene war þai for gret elde wastit away. c 1425 MS. Sloane 73 lf. 201 Whanne þi colour in þi saflour bagge is al wastid or elles ny by wastid. c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 579 Fyfteyn that day he schot to dede of hys hand. Be that his arrous waistyt war and gayne. 1489 Caxton Faytes of Armes i. xix. 60 In the meane whyle thy prouysions and stores be wasted awaye. 1513 Douglas æneis x. iv. 28 The ile..Sa rich of steill it may nocht wastit be. 1559 tr. T. Geminus Anat. 4/2 The former impressions bothe are nowe wasted. 1577 Grange Golden Aphrod. etc. S iv b, My penne is stubbed, my paper spente, my Inke wasted. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 959 To..wast huge stones with little water drops. 1604 E. G. tr. Acosta's Hist. Indies ii. vii. 99 The waxe melts nor droppes not, for that the flame doth waste it by little and little as it riseth. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 3 During the said civill warre..most of the Noble Families were wasted and some destroied. 1639 O. Wood Alph. Bk. Secrets 189 Boyle all these [herbs] in white wine till the wine be wasted. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 12 Dec. 1680, After many daies..the comet was very much wasted. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 44 We haue wrought..all the Coal we can, with safety venture to Work or take away; and so by chance haue Wrought, or waisted the Colliery. 1709–29 V. Mandey Syst. Math., Arith. 17 Repeat this Process, until all the figures of the Dividend be wasted. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physick (1762) 104 It both wastes the Stone and brings it away. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery vi. 63 [Gravy Soup.] Let it stew over a slow Fire, till half is wasted. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 389 When the vat is wasted, fill it with the lye. 1845 J. Phillips Geol. in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 702/1 The felspathic portion of the hypersthene rocks of Carrock Fell is so wasted that the crystals of hypersthene and magnetic iron are projected from the surface considerably.

    4. a. To consume or destroy (a person or living thing, his body, strength) by decay or disease; to cause to pine, emaciate, enfeeble; to undermine the vitality or strength of. Also with away, † up.

a 1225 Ancr. R. 138 Also wiðuten wisdom, fleschs, ase wurm, uoruret hire, & wasteð hire suluen. a 1300 Cursor M. 27934 It [lechery] wastes bodi and als catel. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2162 Loo the ook, þat..hath so long a lif.., Yet at the laste wasted is the tree. c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 5787 Menescen myght was almost wast. 14.. Tundale's Vis. 882 (Wagner) In stronge fire þai brenned ay, Tille þai were nere wasted away. c 1480 Henryson Cock & Fox 511 Waistit he wes, of Nature cauld and dry. 1513 More Rich. III Wks. 54/1 Ye shal al se in what wise that sorceres and that other witch of her counsel shoris wife..haue by their sorcery & witchcraft wasted my body. 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus ii. i. H ij, My bely or panche is all wasted quyte vp or shronke to gether (with lankenesse). 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 57 But through long anguish, and selfe-murdring thought, He was so wasted and fore-pined quight, That all his substance was consum'd to nought. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI iii. ii. 125 Would he were wasted, Marrow, Bones, and all. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. iv. iii, The span of time Doth waste vs to our graues. 1686 tr. Chardin's Coronat. Solyman 11 A Potion, that should waste him by degrees. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xxviii, He feared my daughter's life was already too much wasted to keep me long a prisoner. 1809 Med. Jrnl. XXI. 363 These symptoms continued three or four days, and wasted the patients very much. 1815 Scott Guy M. iv, He wasted his eyes in observing the stars. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlviii. (1856) 445 We were wasted with ennui. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 33 French wars..which wasted our strength.

    † b. refl. To consume one's strength or faculties.

1630 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. lxxi. (1633) 175 And blessed be the memory of those his faithful Servants, that have left their bloud, their spirits, their lives, in these precious papers; & have willingly wasted themselves into these during Monuments, to give light unto others.

    c. To beat up, kill, murder (someone); to devastate a place, to kill its inhabitants. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

1964 P. Marshall in J. H. Clarke Harlem 317 Stomping and wasting our Little People. Ibid. 319 You..president..since Duke got wasted? 1966 J. M. Brewer in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 240/2, I wasted (punched) one of the studs. 1971 Guardian 2 Apr. 12/2 The intention to ‘waste’ My Lai. 1975 C. Weston Susannah Screaming xxix. 147 They wasted Barrett because he blew their deal. 1977 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Sept. 2/4, I think Simone has been wasted (killed) by the southern heavies. 1981 M. C. Smith Gorky Park i. xii. 177 You want to go chasing after the guy who wasted your detective.

    † 5. a. To destroy, annihilate, put an end to (something immaterial, e.g. sin, sorrow). Also with away. Obs.

c 1325 Metr. Hom. 11 He sal wit the haligaste Baptiz you and your sinnes waste. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Treat. 3 This name Ihesu..wastys discorde, reformes pese. c 1400 Rule St. Benet (Verse) 844 Befor godes sight I salbe clene, Yf I waste myne euil dedes bedene. c 1440 York Myst. ii. 52 The more lyght sall be namid þe son, dymnes to wast be downe and be dale. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 16 Derysion and scornyng putteth away and wastith loue as the fiere doth the bronde. ? a 1500 Chester Pl., Magi's Oblation 55 Stench of the Stable it [incense] shall wast. 1535 Coverdale Zech. xi. 3 The pryde off Iordane is waisted awaye. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Nov. 201 Ceasse now my song, my woe now wasted is. 1591 Savile Tacitus' Hist. i. xlii. 24 There is question, whether the present feare wasted his speech, or els that he cried aloude. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 173 He doth by his Word and Spirit, waste and take away all hatreds, enmities, and antipathies. 1689 Lady R. Russell Lett. II. ci. 42 No time..can ever waste my sorrow.

    † b. refl. To ruin one's prospects. Obs.

a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII 49 Perkyn, whether it greued him to be kept inwarde, or els..because he woulde wilfully wast & cast away him selfe, studied how to escape & flye away.

    † 6. To spoil, diminish the goodness or virtue of, cause to deteriorate. [Cf. F. gâter.] Obs. rare.

1572 Huloet (ed. Higins), To waste, or spylle, conspurco, deprauo, disperdo. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. xii. 66 That time shall not wast it,..mix it with Brandy.

    † 7. To diminish or consume the livelihood of, impoverish (a person). Also refl. to spend one's substance, impoverish oneself; also with out. Obs.

1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 191 Before they wast out them selves in giving ayde unto him. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 187, I haue wasted my selfe out of my meanes. 1655 M. Carter Honor rediv. (1660) 54 King Stephen..is said to have wasted the Crown, by the many of them [sc. Earls] that he created. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. lxiv. (1674) 80 Many people having wasted themselves in keeping great Tables. 1727 De Foe Eng. Tradesm. i. vi. (1732) 67 He has been oblig'd to trade for less and less, till at last he is wasted and reduc'd.

    † 8. To spend, part with, diminish one's store of (money, property); to spend, pass, occupy (time); to get over (a distance in travelling). Obs. (cf. 9.)

c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 283 Of maydenys swiche as gunne here tymys waste In hyre seruyse. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 9 So talked they, the whiles They wasted had much way, and measurd many miles. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. iv. 12 Companions That do conuerse and waste the time together. 1600 ― A.Y.L. ii. iv. 95, I like this place, And willingly could waste my time in it. 1614 Ralegh Hist. World ii. x. §4. 390 Fourteene Kings of Iuda comming betweene, who wasted three hundred and odde yeares. 1639 Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 321 They related the whole circumstance of their theft, whereof they had wasted a very small matter. c 1656 Milton Sonn. to Lawrence 4 Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire Help wast a sullen day. 1667 ― P.L. x. 820 Fair Patrimonie That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able To waste it all my self, and leave ye none! 1697 Dryden æneis vii. 15 The Goddess wasts her Days In joyous Songs. 1718 Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. iii. xiv, Wasted was baith cash and tick, Sae ill were they to slocken. 1738 Gray Propertius iii. 62 Each in his proper Art should waste the Day. 1764 H. Walpole Otranto iv, I will withdraw into the neighbouring monastery, and waste the remainder of life in prayers and tears for my child.

    9. In unfavourable sense: To spend, consume, employ uselessly or without adequate result. (Now the most prominent use.) a. To consume, expend, bestow (money, property) uselessly, with needless lavishness or without adequate return; to make prodigal or improvident use of; to squander. Const. in, on.

1340 Ayenb. 19 Me halt ane man wod..þet..þe timliche guodes þet he heþ ine lokinge,..wasteþ and despendeþ ine folyes and ine outrages. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 292 We holde hit nedful to nime þat nouht may be wastid. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xii. (Mathias) 254 Quhene Iudas saw..þe vngymente wes vastit swa. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 13 Ȝif þei wasten delicat metis and drynkis and ȝeuen nouȝt to pore men. 1382 ― Luke xv. 13 And there he wastide his substaunce in lyuynge leccherously. c 1450 Knt. de la Tour 65 With that that was wasted of her clothes, she might haue clothed .ij. or .iij., the whiche deied for colde. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. v. 50 Therefore I.. part with him To one that I would haue him helpe to waste His borrowed purse. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxxv, His irregularities and his extravagance had already wasted a large part of his mother's little fortune. 1874 Green Short Hist. iii. §5. 141 A sixth of the royal revenue was wasted in pensions to foreign favourites. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 78 Your father..Had wasted his estate with cards and dice.

    † b. with away. Obs.

1474 Caxton Chesse iii. viii. (1883) 147 He that of custome hath had haboundance of moneye and goth and dispendith hit folily and wasteth hit away. a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. vii. xxii. §5 When Mary to testifie the largeness of her affection, seemed to waste away a gift upon him. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 252 ¶2, I have a Sot of a Husband..that wastes away his Body and Fortune in Debaucheries. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 340 Those who had wasted away their Substance.

    c. absol.

1390 Gower Conf. II. 139, I bidde noght that thou do wast, Bot hold largesce in his mesure. 1474 Caxton Chesse iii. viii. (1883) 147 Yet she doth harme and domage to hym that so wasteth. 1595 Daniel Civ. Wars i. lix, Now he exactes of all, wasts in delight, Riots in pleasure. a 1641 T. Mun England's Treas. (1664) 218 Let Princes oppress,..Usurers bite, Prodigals wast. 1855 Bohn Handbk. Prov. 551 Waste not, want not.

    d. to waste words, waste breath, † waste wind: to speak to no purpose; † also refl. in the same sense. Similarly to waste paper, waste space (i.e. in writing).

c 1400 Destr. Troy 9788 But all þaire wordis þai wast, & þaire wynd alse. c 1480 Henryson Cock & Jewel 159 (Bann.) Of þis mater I do bot waistis wind. 1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus K iv b, Meaning no more at this time to build Castles in the aire, nor wast my wordes to a deafe man. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. ii. 72 You but waste your words. a 1647 Habington Surv. Worcs. i. 91 That I may not heereafter wast my sealfe in tedious repetitions. 1667 Dryden Ind. Emp. iii. iii, In vain complaints you vainly waste your Breath. 1709 Berkeley Ess. Vision §137 As for the idea of motion in abstract, I shall not waste paper about it. 1812 Shelley Address Prose Wks. 1888 I. 226 A great many words were wasted, and a great deal of blood shed. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 214 Without wasting any more time and space, I will proceed to describe the drawings. 1905 R. Bagot Passport xxxv. 405 We need not waste words in coming to our point.

    e. To spend, pass, occupy (time, one's life, etc.) idly or unprofitably. Const. in, on, † to, and inf. Also with away.

a 1300 Cursor M. 252 To wast þair liif in trofel and truandis. 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII c. 22 §4 Divers artificers..waste moch part of the day and deserve not their wagis. a 1547 Surrey æneid ii. 19 The war, Wherin they wasted had so many yeres. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. i. 51 But wherefore waste I time to counsaile thee. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. i. iv. 4 He fishes, drinkes, and wastes The Lampes of night in reuell. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 103 Not to wast pretious time..in dealing with their filth. 1656 Cowley Pindar. Odes, Extasie i, I have no time in Complements to wast. 1725 Pope Odyss. vi. 29 Oh indolent! to waste thy hours away! 1741 Middleton Cicero I. vi. 418 When Clodius rose afterwards to speak, he endeavoured to wast the time so, as to hinder their coming to any resolution that day. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xv, But I waste your time, sir... I know its value, sir. I will not detain you. 1881 Temple Bar LXI. 403, I am afraid mademoiselle allowed you to waste a great deal of time in novel-reading. 1884 Manch. Exam. 21 May 5/1 The sole aim of the mover..was to waste the time of the House. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xi, Lads that waste the light in sighing.

    f. To employ, put forth (energy, effort, qualities, talents) uselessly or without adequate return. Also refl. Const. on, upon, over.

1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 238 Hit wasteþ no wisdam weihes to lere. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 329 And kep that thou thi witt ne waste Upon thi thoght in aventure. 1728 Young Love of Fame iii. 71 Not all on books their criticism waste. 1854 Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos., Philos. 1st 6 Cent. 90 It seems to us that in general too many lamentations are wasted over lost books. 1856 N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 258 The temporary character of the subjects on which he wasted himself. 1868 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art i. 76 We..waste our labour on things that vanish. 1872 Morley Voltaire i. 10 Good causes lost, and noble effort wasted. 1878 Jevons Primer Polit. Econ. 30 No one is so foolish as to spend his labour in a place where it would be wasted altogether. 1886 ‘Maxwell Gray’ Silence Dean Maitl. i. x, He did not, however, waste much thought on this trivial incident. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn lxvi, To..retire to Spain with the memories of talents wasted, for the most part, over things vain and vile.

    g. To bestow on unappreciative recipients.

1750 Gray Elegy 56 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xviii, Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men?

    h. In pass. (without distinct reference to an agent). Of something appealing to intelligence or sensibility: To fail to be appreciated; to make no impression on a person. Of a person, his qualities or abilities: To have no opportunity for distinction or usefulness.

1898 A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican 1 Our kindly host..gave it as his unsolicited opinion that two such amusing liars as we were utterly wasted on after-dinner oratory. 1905 ‘G. Thorne’ Lost Cause v. 139 ‘You ought to have been on the music hall stage, vicar,’ Mrs. Stiffe said, ‘you're wasted in Hornham.’ Mod. As I had not read the book, the allusion was wasted on me. He is a profound scholar, but quite wasted as a village schoolmaster.

    i. To fail to take advantage of, ‘throw away’ (an opportunity).

1836 Thirlwall Greece xxvi. III. 455 The secret correspondence..which induced him to waste the irresistible opportunity of a safe retreat. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 111 It was not likely that they would waste an opportunity thrust upon them by Providence.

    j. To cause or allow (a substance, physical energy) to be used unprofitably or lost.

1826 Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 3 Every particle of matter may be used, and none wasted. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xvii. (1842) 466 If these bridges of communication be small, much power will be wasted. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. viii. 265 A considerable portion of the heat..is wasted by radiation. 1920 Conquest June 400/2 The invaluable by-products are all wasted and escape into the air in the form of smoke.

    10. To reduce (paper, books) to ‘waste’: see waste n. 11 d.

1883 Fortn. Rev. Apr. 499 Many unsaleable books..are ‘wasted’, that is, are sent to the mill, ground up, pulped down, and made again into paper.

    II. Intransitive uses.
    11. a. Of a person or living thing: To lose strength, health, or vitality; to lose flesh or substance, pine, decay; to become gradually weak or enfeebled.

a 1300 Body & Soul in Mapes' Poems (Camden) 336 In unlust for to lye, waste, wane. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. ix. (1495) 762 The adder absteyneth and wastyth many dayes: that his skynne may so the easelyer be departyd fro the flessh. c 1400 Beryn 1057 A tre without more, That may not bowe, ne bere fruyt, but root & euer wast. c 1460 Wisdom 437 in Macro Plays 50 Wan þey haue wastyde by feyntnes, Than febyll þer wyttis. 1622 Wither Faire-Vertue K 4 b, Shall I wasting in Dispaire, Dye because a Womans faire? 1630 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. lxi. (1633) 144, I had rather waste with worke, then batten with ease. 1635 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 210 His griefe augmenting his feaver whilst his spirits hourely wasted. 1775 Sheridan Duenna iii. v, Ye..gormandize, and thrive, while we are wasting in mortification. 1800 Med. Jrnl. III. 443 Her appetite declines, her strength and flesh gradually waste. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop lxiv, In these slow tortures of his dread disease, the unfortunate Richard lay wasting and consuming inch by inch. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xx, Life wastes fast in such vigils as Caroline had of late but too often kept. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 925 The patient is wasting. Ibid. VII. 216 Almost simultaneously..the deltoid begins to waste.

    b. with away.

1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 371 Þe þridde age is elde..and wasteþ alle away. c 1400 Destr. Troy 4035 Wyndis wastid away, warmyt the ayre. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. i. 25 In cas þe lycoure wast a-way, caste more of þe same wyne þer-to. 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. §23 If drye wether come, it [the grass] wyll drye and burne vpon the grounde, and waste away. 1611 Bible Job xiv. 10 But man dyeth, and wasteth away. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 289 ¶2 Were we not counted out by an intelligent Supervisor, we should sometimes be over-charged with Multitudes, and at others waste away into a Desart. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physick (1762) 96 note, Such a degree of Scurvy as causes the Flesh to waste away. 1775 Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 19 From this time Independence perceptibly wasted away. 1841 J. H. Newman Corr. (1917) 163 For centuries she [sc. the Church] has been wasting away, because persons have made the best of things and palliated serious faults. 1848 Dickens Dombey xlviii, I know I'm wasting away... Burgess and Co. have altered my measure, I'm in that state of thinness.

    c. Sport. To reduce one's weight by training. Also refl. (with down).

1763 Colman Jealous Wife v. 82, I have waisted three Stone at least. 1832 P. Egan's Bk. Sports 186/1 Fitzpatrick [a jockey] caught cold in wasting, and died in the prime of life. 1833 Q. Rev. XLIX. 398 Being occasionally called upon to waste, he [a jockey] feels the inconvenience of his disorder. 1856 H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock xii. 208 He resumed the sweaters, and wasted himself down to a ghastly 7 st. 3 lb. shadow. 1880 W. Day Racehorse in Training xvii. 167 When my father trained, he often wasted by walking on the Downs.

    12. a. Of material things: To be used up or worn away; to lose substance or volume by gradual loss or wear or decay. † Of the moon: To wane (obs.).

c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Katherine) 126 All ydolis of stok & stane mone nedling rot, & wast, & wane. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2165 Considereth eek how that the harde stoon, Vnder oure feet on which we trede and goon, Yit wasteth it as it lyth by the weye. c 1400 Mandeville (1919) 39 And þanne þei schewen the bussch þat brenned & wasted nought. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 232 Promysynge mountaynes of golde, whiche turned into snowe and wasted to water. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 106 Euphues had rather shrinke in the wetting then wast in the wearing. 1600 Surflet Country Farm i. ix. 42 He shall mowe and cut downe his corne with sythe, the moone wasting. 1618 W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. vi. (1623) 12 Dry wall of earth, and dry Ditches, are the worst fences saue pales or railes, and doe waste the soonest. 1622 J. Taylor (Water P.) Shilling B 5, The whilst a Candle in the Kitchin wasts. 1625 Bacon Ess., Plantations (Arb.) 533 Cramme not in People, by sending too fast, Company, after Company; But rather hearken how they waste, and send Supplies proportionably. 1747 Gentl. Mag. XVII. 28/2 In two months time, the liquor will waste a quart. 1873 Gosse On Viol & Flute 53 Plashing with slow feet The warm and tidal pools that wasted there. a 1918 D. W. Forrest in Mem. etc. (1919) 160 ‘The more the marble wastes’, said..Michael Angelo, ‘the more the statue grows’.

    b. Of riches, non-material things: To be consumed or spent; to dwindle or disappear by gradual loss or diminution.

a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 3254 (Dubl. MS.) All þe welth of þis werld waystes be þe last To caryon & corrupcion. c 1410 Lydg. Life Our Lady lxiii. (MS. Ashm. 39) 85 Of parfite riches hit is tresoryeie Whiche may not waste but Iliche abide. c 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. Eng. (Rolls) 104 In his tyme that empire wasted and went to nowt. 1530 Palsgr. 772/1 All thyng wasteth but the grace of God. 1598 Chapman Hero & Leander iii. 35 Joy grauen in sence, like snow in water wasts. 1656 Cowley Mistress, Bathing in River iii, And with swift current to those joys they haste, That do as swiftly waste. 1657 Austen Fruit Trees ii. 30 As grace growes, Corruption wasteth or is kept under. 1715 Watts Div. Songs, Sluggard 12 His money still wastes, till he starves or he begs. 1827 Keble Chr. Y., 2 Sund. Lent, If the treasures of thy wrath could waste. 1834 H. Martineau Farrers iv. 60 Her traffic declined, her wealth wasted, and she knew, at length, the curse of pauperism.

    † 13. To lose quality, deteriorate, spoil. (Cf. 6.)

1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. xii. 66 How to make Powder [so that] it shall not wast with time.

    14. Of time: To pass away, be spent. (Often conjugated with be.) Also const. away.

c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2678 The nyght is wastid, and he fyl a slepe. c 1400 Destr. Troy 4030 Comyn was by course þat the cold wyntur Was wastid & went with his wete shoures. 1540 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 99 The lif of man upon erthe dothe daylie waist and drawith towarde our ende. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iv. Ecl. (1598) 430 The day was so wasted that onely this riming Sestine..could obtaine fauour to be heard. 1634 Ford Perk. Warbeck i. iii, The night doth waste. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 596 So long they flew with inconsiderate haste, That now their afternoon began to waste. 1759 Ann. Reg. 39/1 The season wasted apace. 1767 Sterne Tr. Shandy IX. viii, I will not argue the matter: Time wastes too fast. 1834 Landor Exam. Shaks. Wks. 1846 II. 266 We are losing the day; it wastes toward noon and nothing done. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xxv, The month of courtship had wasted. 1881 ‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Pauper xvii. 187 The afternoon wasted away. 1961 W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio i. 8 The year wasted to an end. 1978 J. A. Michener Chesapeake 282 The boys were only eight and seven, but already the years were wasting.

▪ IV. waste
    obs. form of waist.

Oxford English Dictionary