Wasting

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Waste \Waste\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wasted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Wasting}.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F.
     g[^a]ter to spoil, L. vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr.
     vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but
     influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosten, G.
     w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See {Waste}, a.]


     [1913 Webster]
     1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
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              Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
              Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.
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              The Tiber
              Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.
                                                    --Dryden.
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     2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish
        by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear
        out.
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              Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
                                                    --Num. xiv.
                                                    33.
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              O, were I able
              To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
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              Here condemned
              To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
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              Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of
              age daily grew on him.                --Robertson.
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     3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ
        prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to
        useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause
        to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury.
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              The younger son gathered all together, and . . .
              wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv.
                                                    13.
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              Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
              And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
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     4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate,
        voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc.,
        to go to decay.
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     Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.
          [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wasting \Wast"ing\, a.
     Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a
     wasting disease; a wasting fortune.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Wasting palsy} (Med.), progressive muscular atrophy. See
        under {Progressive}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  wasting
       n 1: any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and
            mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease [syn:
             {cachexia}, {cachexy}]
       2: a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse
          [syn: {atrophy}, {wasting away}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  188 Moby Thesaurus words for "wasting":
     Sanforizing, abscess, aging, ague, anemia, ankylosis, anoxia,
     apnea, asphyxiation, asthma, ataxia, atrophy, attenuation,
     backache, baneful, bleeding, blennorhea, cachexia, cachexy,
     calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, chill, chills,
     chronic ill health, colic, coming apart, constipation, consuming,
     consumption, consumptive, convulsion, coughing, cracking,
     crumbling, cyanosis, deadly, debilitation, debility, decadent,
     declining, decrepitude, degenerate, delicacy, delicate health,
     demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying,
     destructive, deteriorating, devastating, diarrhea, disastrous,
     disintegrating, dizziness, doomful, doting, draining, drooping,
     dropsy, drying, drying up, dwindling, dysentery, dyspepsia,
     dyspnea, ebbing, edema, effete, emaceration, emaciation,
     enervation, exhaustion, fading, failing, fainting, falling, fatal,
     fateful, fatigue, feebleness, fever, fibrillation, flagging, flux,
     fragility, fragmenting, frailty, fratricidal, getting on,
     going to pieces, growing old, growth, healthlessness, hemorrhage,
     high blood pressure, hydrops, hypertension, hypochondria,
     hypochondriasis, hypotension, icterus, ill health, indigestion,
     infirmity, inflammation, insomnia, internecine, invalidism,
     invalidity, itching, jaundice, labored breathing, languishing,
     languishment, low blood pressure, lumbago, marasmus, marcescent,
     morbidity, morbidness, nasal discharge, nausea, necrosis, nihilist,
     nihilistic, pain, paralysis, parching, peakedness, pining,
     poor health, preshrinkage, pruritus, rash, ravaging, regressive,
     retrograde, retrogressive, rheum, ruining, ruinous, sclerosis,
     searing, seizure, self-destructive, senescent, shock, shrinkage,
     shrinking, shriveling, sickliness, sinking, skin eruption, sliding,
     slipping, slumping, sneezing, sore, spasm, subsiding,
     subversionary, subversive, suicidal, tabes, tabetic, tachycardia,
     thinning, tumor, unhealthiness, unsoundness, unwholesomeness,
     upset stomach, valetudinarianism, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic,
     vertigo, vomiting, waning, wasteful, weakliness, wilting,
     withering, worsening