Link Centre Dictionary

squander

squan·der

UK/ˈskwɒnd.ə/ US/ˈskwɒn.də/ uncommon obsolete

verb

1.

spend thoughtlessly; throw away

  • “He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends”
  • “You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

spend extravagantly

  • “waste not, want not”
Synonyms

Origin

Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown origin. Perhaps a blend of scatter + wander. Compare Danish skvætte (rare)/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.