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waste

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪ̯st/

The English word “waste” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
  2. Excrement or urine.
  3. A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
  4. A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
  5. A large tract of uncultivated land.
  6. The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
  7. A vast expanse of water.
  8. A disused mine or part of one.
  9. The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
  10. Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
  11. Gradual loss or decay.
  12. A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
  13. Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste".
  14. A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
  15. Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.

adjective

  1. Useless and contemptible.
  2. Uncultivated, uninhabited.
  3. Barren; desert; empty.
  4. Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
  5. Superfluous; needless.

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”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.