frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

him I'll never know. Don't waste your money on such frivolities.
2 Often, waste away. diminish, deteriorate, dwindle, decline,
decay, atrophy, wither, shrink, weaken, become debilitated,
fade, become enervated or enfeebled, regress, ebb, sink: She is
just wasting away, and I am seriously worried that she may not
recover. 3 enervate, enfeeble, emaciate, gnaw, destroy, consume,
debilitate, exhaust, disable: Arkwright contracted a terrible
wasting disease while in the tropics. 4 assassinate, murder,
kill, Slang put away, rub out, US ice: Don't worry, Boss, we'll
waste Andy and you won't have no more trouble.
--n. 5 misuse, misapplication, squandering, dissipation,
misemployment, abuse, neglect: What a terrible waste of talent
to have such a person doing such lowly work! Do not let that
genius go to waste. 6 wasting, extravagance, prodigality,
wastefulness, squandering, indulgence, lavishness, profligacy,
dissoluteness, improvidence, overindulgence: Government waste
is one of our biggest problems. 7 refuse, rubbish, garbage,
dregs, debris, leavings, scrap, offscourings, sweepings, litter,
Archaic orts, US and Canadian trash: Techniques are being
developed to process the waste in order to avoid using
landfills, incineration, or dumping at sea. 8 wasteland, desert,
wilderness, barrens, wilds, emptiness, vastness: Beyond that
system were vast wastes of uninhabited space.
--adj. 9 extra, leftover, unused, superfluous, worthless,
useless: The waste food was usually fed to the animals. 10
barren, unproductive, unusable, unsalvageable, useless,
unrecyclable, unprofitable, worthless: The waste products of
manufacture are a big problem. 11 lay waste. devastate,
destroy, demolish, despoil, ruin, wreck, ravage, pillage, sack,
plunder, loot, rob, strip, spoil, gut, ransack, wreak havoc
(up)on, crush, raze, annihilate, eradicate, extirpate, wipe out:
These lands and cities, laid waste by the invaders, have never
recovered.
wasteful adj. extravagant, spendthrift, profligate, prodigal, lavish,
improvident, unthrifty, uneconomical, overindulgent,
open-handed, free-handed, penny wise and pound foolish: It was
very wasteful of you to buy me that expensive jewellery.
wastrel n. 1 spendthrift, profligate, waster, prodigal, big spender,
squanderer: That wastrel went through his inheritance in a