waste
//ˈweɪ̯st//
Forms
- Plural
- wastes
- Comparative
- more waste
- Superlative
- most waste
Definitions
1.Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- It's a waste of time and money.
- Don't waste your time on these.
- Don't waste your time on trifles.
2.Excrement or urine.
- The cage was littered with animal waste.
3.A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- We went down accordingly into the waste, and began to make our toilsome and devious travel towards the eastern verge.
- 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.
4.A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- It's a waste of time and money.
- Don't waste your time on these.
- Don't waste your time on trifles.
1.Useless and contemptible.(slang)
2.Barren; desert; empty.
3.Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
- Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.
4.Superfluous; needless.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2271
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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”).