Wassail
(Was"sail), v. i. To hold a wassail; to carouse.
Spending all the day, and good part of the night, in dancing, caroling, and wassailing.
Sir P. Sidney. Wassailer
(Was"sail*er) n. One who drinks wassail; one who engages in festivity, especially in drinking; a
reveler.
The rudeness and swilled insolence
Of such late wassailers.
Milton. Wast
(Wast) The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; — now
used only in solemn or poetical style. See Was.
Wastage
(Wast"age) n. Loss by use, decay, evaporation, leakage, or the like; waste.
Waste
(Waste) a. [OE. wast, OF. wast, from L. vastus, influenced by the kindred German word; cf.
OHG. wuosti, G. wüst, OS. wsti, D. woest, AS. weste. Cf. Vast.]
1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
The dismal situation waste and wild.
Milton.
His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into the waste darkness of futurity.
Sir W. Scott. 2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper.
But his waste words returned to him in vain.
Spenser.
Not a waste or needless sound,
Till we come to holier ground.
Milton.
Ill day which made this beauty waste.
Emerson. 3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous.
And strangled with her waste fertility.
Milton. Waste gate, a gate by which the superfluous water of a reservoir, or the like, is discharged. — Waste
paper. See under Paper. — Waste pipe, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous, water or
other fluids. Specifically: (a) (Steam Boilers) An escape pipe. See under Escape. (b) (Plumbing)
The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl, tub, sink, or the like. — Waste steam. (a) Steam which escapes
the air. (b) Exhaust steam. — Waste trap, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink.
Waste
(Waste), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Wasting.] [OE. wasten, OF. waster,
guaster, gaster, F. gâter 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. wüsten, AS. westan.
See Waste, a.]
1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy.
Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
Art made a mirror to behold my plight.
Spenser.
The Tiber
Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.
Dryden.
