wasting

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
wasting
    n 1: any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and
         mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease [syn:
         {cachexia}, {cachexy}, {wasting}]
    2: a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse
       [syn: {atrophy}, {wasting}, {wasting away}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Waste \Waste\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wasted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Wasting}.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster, guaster, gaster, F.
   g[^a]ter to spoil, L. vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr.
   vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but
   influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. wuosten, G.
   w["u]sten, AS. w[=e]stan. See {Waste}, a.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
            Art made a mirror to behold my plight. --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

            The Tiber
            Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish
      by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear
      out.
      [1913 Webster]

            Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
                                                  --Num. xiv.
                                                  33.
      [1913 Webster]

            O, were I able
            To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
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            Here condemned
            To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of
            age daily grew on him.                --Robertson.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

            The younger son gathered all together, and . . .
            wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv.
                                                  13.
      [1913 Webster]

            Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
            And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
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   4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate,
      voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc.,
      to go to decay.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Wasting \Wast"ing\, a.
   Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a
   wasting disease; a wasting fortune.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Wasting palsy} (Med.), progressive muscular atrophy. See
      under {Progressive}.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
188 Moby Thesaurus words for "wasting":
      Sanforizing, abscess, aging, ague, anemia, ankylosis, anoxia,
      apnea, asphyxiation, asthma, ataxia, atrophy, attenuation,
      backache, baneful, bleeding, blennorhea, cachexia, cachexy,
      calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, chill, chills,
      chronic ill health, colic, coming apart, constipation, consuming,
      consumption, consumptive, convulsion, coughing, cracking,
      crumbling, cyanosis, deadly, debilitation, debility, decadent,
      declining, decrepitude, degenerate, delicacy, delicate health,
      demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying,
      destructive, deteriorating, devastating, diarrhea, disastrous,
      disintegrating, dizziness, doomful, doting, draining, drooping,
      dropsy, drying, drying up, dwindling, dysentery, dyspepsia,
      dyspnea, ebbing, edema, effete, emaceration, emaciation,
      enervation, exhaustion, fading, failing, fainting, falling, fatal,
      fateful, fatigue, feebleness, fever, fibrillation, flagging, flux,
      fragility, fragmenting, frailty, fratricidal, getting on,
      going to pieces, growing old, growth, healthlessness, hemorrhage,
      high blood pressure, hydrops, hypertension, hypochondria,
      hypochondriasis, hypotension, icterus, ill health, indigestion,
      infirmity, inflammation, insomnia, internecine, invalidism,
      invalidity, itching, jaundice, labored breathing, languishing,
      languishment, low blood pressure, lumbago, marasmus, marcescent,
      morbidity, morbidness, nasal discharge, nausea, necrosis, nihilist,
      nihilistic, pain, paralysis, parching, peakedness, pining,
      poor health, preshrinkage, pruritus, rash, ravaging, regressive,
      retrograde, retrogressive, rheum, ruining, ruinous, sclerosis,
      searing, seizure, self-destructive, senescent, shock, shrinkage,
      shrinking, shriveling, sickliness, sinking, skin eruption, sliding,
      slipping, slumping, sneezing, sore, spasm, subsiding,
      subversionary, subversive, suicidal, tabes, tabetic, tachycardia,
      thinning, tumor, unhealthiness, unsoundness, unwholesomeness,
      upset stomach, valetudinarianism, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic,
      vertigo, vomiting, waning, wasteful, weakliness, wilting,
      withering, worsening

    

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