1. That causes devastation, desolation, or ruin; that destroys or lays waste.
a. of a person or animal, thing personified, personal action or attribute. ? Obs.
a. 1300–1400. Cursor M., 18230 (Gött.). Þu prince of tinsel and þu duke Of wastful werk, sir belzabuk.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs (1880), 39. What man … with more vehemency of voyce giveth warning eyther of a wastefull beaste, or of a spoiling theefe than this [dog]?
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Jan., 2. When Winters wastful spight was almost spent.
1596. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 283. Wastefull vengeance.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., IV. 218. England … defended by the Sea from wastfull incursions.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 620. Yonder World, which I So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man Let in these wastful Furies.
1783. Burke, Sp. Fox’s E. India Bill, Wks. 1842, I. 282. The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and Persians into India were, for the greater part, ferocious, bloody, and wasteful in the extreme.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xvii. He collected his scattered forces from the wasteful occupation in which they had been engaged.
quasi-adv. 1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 122. Insect armies … wasteful eat Through buds and bark into the blackened core Their eager way.
b. of a thing, its action. Now rare.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, III. 287. First will we race the City wals our selues,… And … Open an entrance for the wastfull sea.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, VIII. lxxii. Mongst them Alecto strowed wastefull fire.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 461. [Storms] being oft times noxious where they light On man, beast, plant, wastful and turbulent.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, I. 747. But not impel them o’er their bounds of sand, Nor force the wasteful deluge o’er the land.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 266. The wasteful action [of water] is very conspicuous at Dimlington Height.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, ii. 28. These wasteful fires were a terrible nuisance.
2. Useless, worthless; unused.
† a. Of desires, words, etc.: Empty, vain, profitless. Of time: Unoccupied, spare. Obs.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 303. Þowȝ þou be poore … þou mayst haue þis grauel of wast in þin herte in wastfull & feruent desyris, wyllys, & delyȝtes. Ibid., 304. Þe secunde fote depthe is wast of þi mowth, þat is, wastfull woordys, whann þou spekyst all of þi good, of þi rycches, [etc.].
a. 1547. Surrey, Paraphr. Eccl. ii. 32. But when I made my compte with howe great care of mynd … that I had sought, so wastfull frutt to fynde Then was I streken strayte.
1573. Abp. Parker, Corr. (Parker Soc.), 426. I was the bolder to take mine occasion thus equitare in arundine longa, so spending my wasteful time within mine own walls.
1577. Fulke, Confut. Purg., I. iii. 216. That I haue alleaged already is sufficient to represse that vaine and vnskilfull insultation, that you vse in so many wastfull wordes against vs.
b. Refuse, waste. rare.
1868. Lynch, Rivulet (ed. 3), CII. i. For He, the Sower, must return … The wheat to garner, and to burn Of tares the wasteful heap.
3. Of a place: Desolate; unused, unfrequented, uninhabited, void. Obs. exc. arch. and poet.
1572–3. Abp. Parker, Corr. (Parker Soc.), 419. I would remove some part of an old, decayed, wasteful, unwholesome, and desolate house at Ford, to enlarge the little house I have at Bekesborne.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., June, 50. Thy rymes and roundelayes, Which thou were wont on wastfull hylls to singe. Ibid., Dec., 23. I went the wastefull woodes and forest wyde.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, To Rdr. Thus sing I … To wastefull woods, to empty groves.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 961. When strait behold the Throne Of Chaos, and his dark Pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful Deep.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, II. 119. A wastful, cold, untrodden wilderness.
1827. Pollok, Course of Time, III. 261. At the midnight hour … in wasteful hall,… Thou mightst have seen him bending o’er his heaps, And holding strange communion with his gold.
1883. Bridges, Prometheus, 43. When he had taken the throne and chained His foes in wasteful Tartarus.
1890. E. H. Barker, Wayfaring in France, 313. The Druids of old, who sought these wasteful places as the fittest for the worship of that Mystery.
as complement. 1618. Ainsworth, Ps. cxxxvii. Daughter of Babel, wastful layd.
4. Of a person, his disposition, etc.: Addicted to waste; given to useless or excessive expenditure; regardless of economy in the management or use of resources; prodigal, extravagant, thriftless.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Prodigus, prodigall, wastefull, an outragious expender.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, Prol. B ij b. The gospell reherseth the lyfe of the prodigal son .i. of the wastfull spendyng chylde by a knowen parable.
1570. Levins, Manip., 186/32. Waystfull, dispendiosus.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxvii. § 4. As in the Gospell that wastfull young man which returned home to his Fathers house was with ioy both admitted and honoured.
1604. Rowlands, Looke to It, 40. You carelesse wretches of the wastfull vaine, That for your Families will not prouide.
1662. Hibbert, Body Divinity, I. 186. They that lose time are the greatest losers and wastfullest prodigals.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm. (1770), III. vii. 170. For it is hardly to be hoped, but that our Negligence about their Conduct will tempt them, either to be dishonest, or idle, or wastful, in our Service.
b. Of expenditure, style of living, etc.: Characterized by waste or extravagance.
1451. Capgrave, St. Gilbert, 69. In his riding had he no costful hors, no wastful aray, not many hors, ne many seruantis.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, V. iv. Z iij. By prodygalitie or wastfull spendyng.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 16. Or with Taper-light To seeke the beauteous eye of heauen to garnish Is wastefull, and ridiculous excesse.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 289. By plundering the public creditor, it was possible to … support … the wasteful expenditure of the court.
1885. Tennyson, Anc. Sage, 5. One … richly garb’d, but worn From wasteful living.
1885. Manch. Exam., 6 May, 5/2. No society … is more free from the drawback of wasteful expense in management.
† c. Beneficently extravagant, lavish. Obs. rare.
1701. Addison, Let. fr. Italy to Ld. Halifax, 106. How has kind Heaven adorned the happy land, And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand!
5. Of a person, an action, process, etc.: That wastes, consumes or expends unprofitably (something specified or implied); not economical. Const. of.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle, Of Oxen (1596), 72. Some do vse to feede them on the ground without a racke, but that is thought to be … more wastfull of hay.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 171. A wasteful condensation of the newly introduced steam must take place.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 263. Rival parties of trappers soon exhaust the streams, especially when competition renders them heedless and wasteful of the beaver.
1874. H. H. Cole, Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus., 234. The material … is in itself of such beautiful texture that it seems wasteful of good things to cover it with embroidery.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 203. It seems to me rather wasteful to spend a lot of extra money on half-plate slides, and then only use them for quarters.
1893. Bookman, June, 85/2. He [James Ashcroft Noble] knows what he can do, and, avoiding any wasteful dissipation of his powers, does that efficiently.
† b. of a thing. Obs.
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 171. When euery roome Hath blaz’d with Lights,… I haue retyr’d me to a wastefull cocke, And set mine eyes at flow.
1618. W. Lawson, Orch. & Gard., xi. (1623), 33. The greater Trees … haue filled and ouer-loaden themselues with a number of wastfull boughs and suckers.
6. That causes bodily waste or decay. Now rare.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 341. The one sleepes easily because he cannot study,… lacking the burthen of leane and wasteful Learnings.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., xcvi. Using every argument to rouse her from this wasteful excess of grief.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., ix. 241. Self-inflicted penances, wasteful abstinences,… and all such like spontaneities.
