waste

spend thoughtlessly; throw away

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

use inefficiently or inappropriately

• “waste heat”
• “waste a joke on an unappreciative audience”

get rid of

• “We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer”

run off as waste

• “The water wastes back into the ocean”

get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing

• “The mafia liquidated the informer”
• “the double agent was neutralized”

spend extravagantly

• “waste not, want not”

lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief

• “After her husband died, she just pined away”

cause to grow thin or weak

• “The treatment emaciated him”

devastate or ravage

• “The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion”

waste away

• “Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world”

any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted

• “they collect the waste once a week”
• “much of the waste material is carried off in the sewers”

useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly

• “if the effort brings no compensating gain it is a waste”
• “mindless dissipation of natural resources”

the trait of wasting resources

• “a life characterized by thriftlessness and waste”
• “the wastefulness of missed opportunities”

an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation

• “the barrens of central Africa”
• “the trackless wastes of the desert”

(law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect

disposed of as useless

• “waste paper”

located in a dismal or remote area; desolate

• “a desert island”
• “a godforsaken wilderness crossroads”
• “a wild stretch of land”
• “waste places”