(of an organ or body part) diminished in size or strength as a result of disease or injury or lack of use
<adj.all> partial paralysis resulted in an atrophied left arm
serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
<adj.all> otiose lines in a play advice is wasted words a pointless remark a life essentially purposeless senseless violence
not used to good advantage
<adj.all> squandered money cannot be replaced a wasted effort
very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
<adj.all> emaciated bony hands a nightmare population of gaunt men and skeletal boys eyes were haggard and cavernous small pinched faces kept life in his wasted frame only by grim concentration
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.] 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.
2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. --Num. xiv. 33.
O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! --Milton.
Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain. --Milton.
Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him. --Robertson.
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.
The younger son gathered all together, and . . . wasted his substance with riotous living. --Luke xv. 13.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray.
4. (Law) To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.
Syn: To squander; dissipate; lavish; desolate.
Dukakis wasted no time getting back to work, arriving at the office at 9:30 a.m. to applause from about 50 state workers.
Today's weed tree may be tomorrow's miracle, and what once was wasted may soon be developed as a valuable resource.
Above all, there is no costed programme or even a list of costed options of the kind that is standard, for instance, in the work of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This is a great wasted opportunity.
Auditors hired by the Illinois Commerce Commission ruled that Commonwealth Edison Co. wasted nearly $872 million during construction of its controversial Braidwood 1 nuclear plant.
So a good dramatic device is wasted.
Democrats, who had criticized that approach, said Californians showed that people are willing to accept higher taxes, so long as they know in advance that the money will be spent on real needs, and won't be wasted.
No gesture, no prop was exaggerated or wasted.
William C. Verity, confirmed as secretary of commerce only last month, wasted no time in finding a new form of "unfair" trade.
The U.S. position on the Soviet Union is that direct aid would merely be wasted by a system plagued by gross inefficiencies.
The formula they applied, they said, satisfied the company's accountants. The researchers said they assessed the direct costs of mistakes, the time taken to rectify them, the indirect costs of time wasted and the costs of loss of business.
Magazines have a lot of wasted circulation.
Nothing is wasted, indeed a great deal is gained, by passing quickly and naturally from one scene to another.
Indeed, Systemix wasted no time in serving notice it will prosecute the patent "as aggressively as possible," according to Linda Sonntag, the company's president.
In recent years too many tax dollars have been wasted because we have produced too many procurement scandals and too few effective weapons.
Foreman, winning for the 22nd straight time since returning to the ring three years ago, wasted little time in earning his $1 million payday.
Marinelife's curator, Moby Solangi, issued a statement saying the fisheries service wasted taxpayers' money by investigating the Miss Teen U.S.A. affair.
The votes could be wasted if the FDP fails to make 5 per cent, and then the CDU would be doubly weakened.
But Mr. Soros warned that such assistance, if provided directly to the Soviet state, would be "largely wasted," because the state can't invest efficiently.
West Germany (before unification) consumed just over 1m tonnes a year with just over half collected after use. The dumped oil is not only a wasted resource but a powerful pollutant which can contaminate land, poison water supplies and destroy wildlife.
It intends, if that succeeds, to apply to have him declared bankrupt also. Robson Rhodes has wasted no time in moving against Mr Kevin Maxwell.
Mr. Spielvogel wasted no time.
One suit accuses Braniff directors of approving transactions that wasted corporate assets.
Administrators pushed for a smooth transition inside, and fellow students wasted no time getting acquainted with their new classmate.
President Bush today praised the "process of change" Mikhail S. Gorbachev sparked in the Soviet Union but wasted no time in laying out U.S. displeasure over the Soviet president's policy in Lithuania.
They love to quote - in their favour - Lord Leverhulme's remark that 'I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted.
AFTER spending the best part of a week biting their nails over the outcome of the Nafta vote in the House of Representatives, US investors wasted little time celebrating Wednesday's decision.
Then he walked in front of a large board and "played" the game by moving the magnetic pieces as Kasparov and Karpov had done, noting that Karpov failed to develop a slight advantage due to several wasted chances.
Bush, however, has wasted no time in laying the groundwork for his general election campaign.
There ought to be a service, all right _ of the bill for the taxpayer money wasted on behalf of these self-indulgent brats.
The $21 billion spent fighting drugs during the Reagan administration "wasn't wasted, and it wasn't all wrong," said Bennett. "There were some real successes during the Reagan era.