Word.ws English Dictionary

wasten

wasten verb: to make or become waste (i.e. barren, dejected, dismal, feeble, or sickly) or wasted.

Verb

wasten (third-person singular simple present wastens, present participle wastening, simple past and past participle wastened)

  1. (ambitransitive) To make or become waste (i.e. barren, dejected, dismal, feeble, or sickly) or wasted
    • It is our wisdom to master this wastening incredulity: to overcome unbelief, by faith; and so the more easily this present world; making light of its permitted trials, and sitting loose to its possessions.1865, John Stock (Vicar of Finchingfield, Essex.), An Exposition of the First Epistle General of St. John.
    • […] Thomas s. of Chr: Clifton of Clifton & Will'm sonne of Robert Miller of Leedes lost in the snow the 8t of Februarie & not found till then & Clifto's child strangly wastened all saveing a very few bones thothr whole & fresh […]1908, original 1613-1614, The Publications of the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, volume 33, page 203
    Synonyms:
    weaken, wane

Examples of wasten in a sentence

  • Wolsey wastened no moment in responding.1980, Nancy Lenz Harvey, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, page 118:
  • Not a second was to be wastened when your parent sends you on an errand or some chore.2015, Oliver Lockewell, Behind The Mirror: Fright Night Flash Fiction:

Synonyms of wasten

Forms of wasten

third-person singular presentwastens
present participlewastening
past participlewastened
pastwastened

Origin of wasten

From waste (“empty, barren, dejected, dismal”, adjective) + -en.

Questions about wasten

What does wasten mean?
Wasten means to make or become waste (i.e. barren, dejected, dismal, feeble, or sickly) or wasted.
How do you use wasten in a sentence?
Wolsey wastened no moment in responding.
What part of speech is wasten?
Wasten is a verb.
What is the past tense of wasten?
The past tense of wasten is wastened.

Words near wasten in the dictionary

  1. wastelots
  2. wastels
  3. wasteman
  4. wastemans
  5. wastemen
  6. wasten
  7. wastened
  8. wasteness
  9. wastenesses
  10. Wasteneys
  11. wastening

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wasten (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “wasten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wasten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.