waste

v

1. squander, fritter away, fool away, dissipate, lose, misuse, misspend; expend, consume, use up, drain, exhaust, deplete; throw away, burn up, run through, go through, Sl. blow; disperse, scatter, spill, muddle away; splurge, lavish, play the profligate, Sl. hang the expense; misapply, misemploy, overdraw, impoverish, spend recklessly; throw money away, spend money like water, throw good money after bad, play ducks and drakes with, spend money as if it grew on trees or were going out of style; (of time) kill, while away, pass.

2. wear away, erode, dwindle, eat away, gnaw away; reduce, diminish, decrease, lessen, lower, cut, cut back, shorten; ablate, corrode, wash away, rub away, disintegrate.

3. deteriorate, degenerate, worsen, regress; decline, fall, slip, go downhill, run down; decay, wither, atrophy, wear out, crumble, molder; fag, wilt, pine, languish, shrivel, shrink; emaciate, weaken, enfeeble, macerate, break down; perish, wane, ebb, die, subside, slump, slide; dry up, wizen, fade, droop, run to seed.

4. destroy, devastate, ruin, lay waste, demolish, wreck; ravage, pillage, plunder, sack, spoil, spoliate, despoil; sack, loot, gut, strip, ransack, rifle; maraud, rape, harry, Chiefly Scot. reive, raid; wreak havoc upon, overrun, shatter, smash, crush, fell; annihilate, eradicate, extirpate, blast, bow up, raze.

n

5. dissipation, prodigality, squandering, misuse, consumption, overconsumption; depletion, exhaustion, draining, loss; misapplication, misemployment, abuse, neglect; lavishness, extravagance, indulgence, dissoluteness, profligacy; unthriftiness, improvidence, overspending, liberality; overindulgence, crapulousness, gluttony, abandonment.

6. impairment, weakening, degeneration, deterioration, regression; decay, emaciation, consumption, wastage, atrophy; diminution, lessening, lowering, decline, fall; ablation, corrosion, erosion, deliquescence; decrease, reduction, shortening, cut; wear, wear and tear, weathering; dilapidation, disintegration, decomposition, breakup, oxidation, spoilage.

7. devastation, destruction, ruin, desolation, ravage, havoc; wreckage, annihilation, eradication, obliteration, extirpation, extermination; ravishment, despoliation, spoliation, depredation, plunder, pillage, sack; ruination, demolition, razing, burning, leveling.

8. desert, wasteland, wilderness, emptiness, vastness; barrens, heath, dust bowl, salt flat, wilds, bush.

9. rubbish, trash, refuse, spilth, garbage, Chiefly Brit. wastrel, leavings, leftovers, remnants, residue, scraps, litter; scourings, offscourings, sweepings, wash, hogwash, slops; scum, dross, dregs, draff, slag, sediment, grounds, lees; alluvium, detritus, debris, deposits, Geol. diluvium; orts, odds and ends, rags, ends, ruins, butts, fag ends, stumps; shavings, parings, sawdust, chaff, filings; ashes, cinders, soot, smut, culm.

10. wastes

excrement, feces, waste matter, excreta, droppings; dung, ordure, discharges, guano, egesta.

adj

11. wild, desolate, barren, desert, arid; uninhabited, bare, empty, void, vacant, deserted, ghostly, ruined, destroyed, wrecked, ravaged, gutted; depopulated, unpeopled, unoccupied, solitary, lonely; dead, lifeless, fallow, unproductive, unfertile, infe-cund, sterile, unfruitful; stripped, desolated, spoiled, dismal, cheerless, bleak, dreary.

12. leftover, unused, useless, superfluous, extra, worthless, unserviceable, Archaic. losel; unnecessary, needless, of no use, unhelpful, unbeneficial, unprofitable.