3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse. Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse
resulting from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil
in the axle boxes of railway cars, etc.
4. (Law) Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses, woods, fences, lands, etc., by a tenant for life or
for years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder.
Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of
necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to the freehold is a waste. Blackstone.
5. (Mining) Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or filled with refuse.
Syn. — Prodigality; diminution; loss; dissipation; destruction; devastation; havoc; desolation; ravage.
Wastebasket
(Waste"bas`ket) n. A basket used in offices, libraries, etc., as a receptacle for waste paper.
Wasteboard
(Waste"board`) n. (Naut.) See Washboard, 3.
Wastebook
(Waste"book`) n. (Com.) A book in which rough entries of transactions are made, previous
to their being carried into the journal.
Wasteful
(Waste"ful) a.
1. Full of waste; destructive to property; ruinous; as, wasteful practices or negligence; wasteful expenses.
2. Expending, or tending to expend, property, or that which is valuable, in a needless or useless manner; lavish; prodigal; as,
a wasteful person; a wasteful disposition.
3. Waste; desolate; unoccupied; untilled. [Obs.]
In wilderness and wasteful desert strayed.
Spenser. Syn. — Lavish; profuse; prodigal; extravagant.
— Waste"ful*ly, adv. — Waste"ful*ness, n.
Wastel
(Was"tel) n. [OF. wastel, gastel, F. gâteau, LL. wastellus, fr. MHG. wastel a kind of bread; cf.
OHG. & AS. wist food.] A kind of white and fine bread or cake; — called also wastel bread, and wastel
cake. [Obs.]
Roasted flesh or milk and wasted bread.
Chaucer.
The simnel bread and wastel cakes, which were only used at the tables of the highest nobility.
Sir W.
Scott. Wasteness
(Waste"ness) n.
1. The quality or state of being waste; a desolate state or condition; desolation.
A day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness.
Zeph. i. 15. 2. That which is waste; a desert; a waste. [R.]
Through woods and wasteness wide him daily sought.
Spenser.
