wasting

(noun) any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease. Synonyms: cachexia, cachexy.

(noun) a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse. Synonyms: atrophy, wasting away.

(verb) spend thoughtlessly; throw away. Synonyms: waste, blow, squander. Examples: "He wasted his inheritance on his insincere friends." "You squandered the opportunity to get and advanced degree."

(verb) use inefficiently or inappropriately. Synonyms: waste. Examples: "Waste heat." "Waste a joke on an unappreciative audience."

(verb) get rid of. Synonyms: waste. Examples: "We waste the dirty water by channeling it into the sewer."

(verb) run off as waste. Synonyms: waste, run off. Examples: "The water wastes back into the ocean."

(verb) get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing. Synonyms: neutralize, neutralise, liquidate, waste, knock off, do in. Examples: "The mafia liquidated the informer." "The double agent was neutralized."

(verb) spend extravagantly. Synonyms: consume, squander, waste, ware. Examples: "Waste not, want not."

(verb) lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief. Synonyms: pine away, waste, languish. Examples: "After her husband died, she just pined away."

(verb) cause to grow thin or weak. Synonyms: waste, emaciate, macerate. Examples: "The treatment emaciated him."

(verb) cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly. Synonyms: lay waste to, waste, devastate, desolate, ravage, scourge. Examples: "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion."

(verb) become physically weaker. Synonyms: waste, rot. Examples: "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world."