Word.ws English Dictionary

wasting

/ˈweɪstɪŋ/

wasting is the present participle and gerund of waste.

Noun

wasting (countable and uncountable, plural wastings)

  1. Gradual deterioration or wasting away.
    • muscular wastings
  2. The act by which something is laid waste; destruction.

Meaning of waste

Verb

waste (third-person singular simple present wastes, present participle wasting, simple past and past participle wasted)

  1. (transitive) To devastate; to destroy.
    • Thou barrein ground, whome winters wrath hath wasted, / Art made a myrrour to behold my plight.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Ianuarie. Aegloga Prima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate.
    • We wasted millions of dollars and several years on that project.
    Synonyms:
    devour
  3. (slang, transitive) To kill; to murder.
    Synonyms:
    cack
  4. (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
    • until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 14:33
    Synonyms:
    devour
  5. (intransitive) To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
  6. (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
    • […]The barrell of meale shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oile faile, vntill the day that the Lord sendeth raine vpon the earth.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 17:14

See all 29 meanings of waste

Adjective

wasting (not comparable)

  1. Causing a waste, or wasting away; causing pronounced loss of body mass.

Forms of wasting

pluralwastings

Words formed from wasting

Phrases with wasting

Words that rhyme with wasting

Questions about wasting

What does wasting mean?
Wasting means causing a waste, or wasting away; causing pronounced loss of body mass.
What is wasting the present participle and gerund of?
Wasting is the present participle and gerund of waste.
What part of speech is wasting?
Wasting can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce wasting?
Wasting is pronounced /ˈweɪstɪŋ/.

Words near wasting in the dictionary

  1. wasteyutes
  2. wastfull
  3. wastier
  4. wastiest
  5. wastin'
  6. wasting
  7. wasting away
  8. wasting breath
  9. wasting disease
  10. wasting diseases
  11. wasting investment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wasting (page history and authors); waste (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wasting.wav.

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