Home Synonyms waste

Synonyms of waste in English:

waste


See US English definition of waste

See UK English definition of waste

See Spanish definition of desperdicio

verb

1‘he doesn't like to waste money on bus fares’

SYNONYMS
squander, fritter away, misspend, misuse, spend recklessly, throw away, lavish, be wasteful with, dissipate, spend like water, throw around like confetti
go through, run through, exhaust, drain, deplete, burn up, use up, consume
informal blow, splurge
ANTONYMS

conserve

2‘junkies wasting away in the streets’

SYNONYMS
grow weak, wither, atrophy, become emaciated, shrivel up, shrink, decay
decline, wilt, fade, flag, deteriorate, degenerate, rot, moulder, languish, be abandoned, be neglected, be forgotten, be disregarded
ANTONYMS

flourish, thrive

3‘the disease had wasted his legs’

SYNONYMS
emaciate, atrophy, wither, debilitate, shrivel, shrink, weaken, enfeeble, sap the strength of

4‘I saw them waste the guy I worked for’

SYNONYMS
murder, kill, do away with, assassinate, liquidate, do to death, eliminate, terminate, dispatch, finish off, put to death, execute
slaughter, butcher, massacre, wipe out, destroy, annihilate, eradicate, exterminate, extirpate, decimate, mow down, shoot down, cut down, cut to pieces
informal bump off, polish off, do in, knock off, top, take out, croak, stiff
North American informal ice, off, rub out, whack, smoke
literary slay

adjective

1‘I collected two bags containing waste material’

SYNONYMS
unwanted, excess, superfluous, left over, scrap, extra, unused, useless, worthless
unproductive, unusable, unprofitable
ANTONYMS

useful

2‘she took a shortcut across waste ground’

SYNONYMS
uncultivated, barren, desert, unproductive, infertile, unfruitful, arid, bare
desolate, solitary, lonely, empty, void, uninhabited, unpopulated
wild
ANTONYMS

cultivated


noun

1‘what a waste of money’

SYNONYMS
squandering, dissipation, frittering away, misspending, misuse, misapplication, misemployment, abuse
prodigality, extravagance, wastefulness, lavishness, unthriftiness

2‘household waste’

SYNONYMS
refuse, litter, debris, dross, junk, detritus, scrap
dregs, leavings, remains, scraps, offscourings
sewage, effluent, effluvium
British rubbish
North American garbage, trash

3usually wastes‘the frozen wastes of the South Pole’

SYNONYMS
desert, wasteland, wilderness, barrenness, emptiness, vastness, wilds

Phrases

    lay waste

    ‘the army laid waste to hundreds of villages’


    SYNONYMS
    devastate, wipe out, destroy, demolish, annihilate, raze, ruin, leave in ruins, wreck, level, flatten, gut, consume, ravage, pillage, sack, wreak havoc on
    literary despoil
    rare depredate