Wastrel

/ˈweɪstɹəl/ · noun

Meaning

(countable, dated) One who is profligate, who wastes time or resources extravagantly..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable, dated) One who is profligate, who wastes time or resources extravagantly.
2. (countable, obsolete) A neglected child.
3. (uncountable, obsolete) Refuse; rubbish.

Example Sentences

And so with one thing and other the auld witch raised the fiends of jealousy in that innocent heart. She would cry out that Heriotside was an ill-doing wastrel, and had no business to come and flatter honest lassies.

Mary’s mother—if that was her picture—may have been a wastrel in her spare time (she had thirteen children by a minister of the church), but if so her gay and dissipated life had left too few traces of its pleasures on her face.

Party politics didn’t come naturally to me. I was a twentysomething crypto-anarchist wastrel from the outer suburbs of Bristol who’d spent five years after university moving between jobs and getting distracted.

Synonyms for wastrel

Antonyms for wastrel

Related Words

Word Forms

• wastrels

Usage Notes

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