1. (a.) Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
2. (a.) Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
3. (a.) Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.
4. (v.) To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
5. (v.) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
6. (v.) 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.
7. (v.) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.
8. (v. i.) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value, or the like, gradually; to be consumed; to dwindle; to grow less.
9. (v. i.) To procure or sustain a reduction of flesh; -- said of a jockey in preparation for a race, etc.
10. (n.) The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain; gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a waste of property, time, labor, words, etc.
11. (v.) That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated, uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a wilderness.
12. (v.) That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse. Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of railway cars, etc.
13. (v.) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses, woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or for years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder.
14. (v.) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or filled with refuse.
Thesaurus Entries
Arabia Deserta, Death Valley, Sahara, abate, ablate, ablation, absorption, acarpous, afterglow, afterimage, arid, assimilation, atrophy, attenuate, attrition, back, back of beyond, back-country, backwood, backwoods, backwoodsy, balance, barren, barren land, barrens, bate, be consumed, be eaten away, be gone, be used up, blast, bloodbath, blot out, blow, blue ruin, blunder away, bones, breakup, bring to ruin, brush, bump off, burning up, bush, butt, butt end, candle ends, carnage, carpe diem, cast away, cease, cease to be, cease to exist, celibate, chaff, childless, condemn, confound, conspicuous consumption, consume, consume away, consumption, corrode, corrosion, croak, crumble, culm, damn, damnation, deadwood, deal destruction, debris, decimate, decimation, decline, decrease, decrement, dejecta, dejection, dejecture, deliquesce, deliquescence, dematerialize, depart, deplete, depletion, depreciate, depreciation, depredate, depredation, desecrate, desert, desolate, desolation, despoil, despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, detritus, devastate, devastation, devour, die, die away, die out, digestion, diminish, disappear, discharge, dishwater, disintegration, disorganization, dispel, disperse, disruption, dissipate, dissipation, dissolution, dissolve, dive, do a fade-out, do in, draff, drain, drained, dregs, dribble away, dried-up, drivel, droop, drop, drop off, dry, dry up, dust, dust bowl, dwindle, eating up, ebb, effluent, egesta, ejecta, ejectamenta, ejection, emacerate, emaciate, emaciation, end, engorge, erase, erode, erosion, evanesce, evaporate, evaporation, excrement, excreta, excretes, exhaust, exhausted, exhaustion, exit, expend, expending, expenditure, extravagance, extravagancy, extravasate, extravasation, exudate, exudation, fade, fade away, fade out, fag end, fail, fall, fall away, fall off, fallow, filings, finishing, fix, flag, flee, fly, fool away, fossil, fritter, frivol, fruitless, garbage, gash, gaunt, gelded, get, give out, give the business, go, go away, gobble, gobble up, gun down, gut, gut with fire, havoc, heath, hecatomb, hide, hinterland, hit, hogwash, holdover, holocaust, howling wilderness, husks, ice, impotent, impoverishment, incinerate, incontinence, ineffectual, infecund, infertile, ingestion, intemperance, issueless, jejune, jungle, junk, karroo, kelter, languish, lavishness, lay in ruins, lay out, lay waste, leached, leakage, leaking purse, leave no trace, leave the scene, leavings, lees, leftovers, lessen, let up, litter, loose purse strings, lose, lose strength, loss, lunar landscape, lunar waste
