Forms: 4 wastere, wastor, (waaster), 4–5 wastoure, -owre, wastur, 4–6 wastour, 5 wayster, 5–6 waister, Sc. -our, 6 Sc. westour, westar, 4– waster. [Orig. a. AF. wastere, -our, agent-n. f. waster WASTE v. This coalesced with the later formation on WASTE v. + -ER1. In sense 6 the word may be f. WASTE a. or sb. + -ER1.]
I. One who or something that wastes.
1. One who lives in idleness and extravagance; one who wastefully dissipates or consumes his resources, an extravagant spender, a squanderer, spendthrift. Now chiefly dial., with some notion of sense 6, a worthless person, ‘ne’er-do-well.’
1352. Winner & Waster, 194. ‘Ȝee wynnere,’ quod wastoure, ‘thi wordes are vayne: With oure festes and oure fare we feden the pore.’ Ibid., 390. Who so wele schal wyn, a wastour moste he fynde, For if it greues one gome it gladdes anoþer.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 22. Summe … In Eringe and in Sowynge swonken ful harde, Þat monie of þeos wasturs In Glotonye distruen. Ibid., A. V. 24. He bad wastors go worche what þei best couþe, And wynne þat þei wasteden with sum maner craft.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 445. Þe Kyng was a ravener in gaderynge and a greet wastour in spendynge.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 162. Bachus … A wastour was, and al his rente In wyn and bordel he despente.
1470. Paston Lett., Suppl. (1901), 137. Which … shuld cause … your frendis to thynk … that ye shuld be a wastour and wuld wast your lyvelod.
1508. Stanbridge, Vulgaria (W. de W.), C iij b. He is a waster. Profusus est pecunie.
1597. in Spalding Club Misc. (1841), I. 177. The said Walter did never strik his wyff, nather yit onis fund fault with hir,… althocht scho wes ane westour.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 91. Prodigall ding-thrifts and wasters.
1631. Lenton, Charact., G 7. A Good Husband…. He is the sole happinesse of a good wife, and the torment of a Waster.
1641. D. Ferguson, Sc. Prov., No. 51 (1785), 20. It is well wairt that waisters want gear.
a. 1697. Aubrey, Lives, Hobbes (1898), I. 347. His lord, who was a waster, sent him up and downe to borrow money.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, IV. 369. This would … instruct him … to avoid being a Squanderer or Waster.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 407. He who will not work, must … leave the town, as they will not sweat themselves for an healthy idle waster.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxviii. Ye will think I am turned waster, for I wear clean hose and shoon every day.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Waster,… a wasteful person.
1887. J. W. Matthews, Incwadi Yami, viii. 123. The class of ‘wasters’ which public gambling bred and fostered were a distinct outrage upon society.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, i. A mining population of whites and blacks and ‘wasters,’… ‘Wasters?’—oh, it’s a South African word, and most expressive; applies to the specious loafer who is so common in this country.
1904. J. Sweeney, At Scotland Yard, viii. 203. Here was a wretched invertebrate fellow, an absolute ‘waster.’
quasi-adj. 1596. in Maitl. Club Misc. (1840), I. 83. The presbiterie findis Johne Graye to have callit sir Bartilmo Simsone, and wastourfallo, commoun theve, [etc.].
1728. Ramsay, Last Sp. Miser, xiv. But waster wives, the warst of a’.
b. One who wastefully dissipates or consumes (something specified; in early use money, resources). Const. of.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 200. & ȝif men … wolden fayn paie, & traueile bisily þerfore in treuþe, & ben not wastouris of here litil good.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 291. Men moste enquere … Wher she be wys … or wastour of thy good.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 131. He is a wastoure of his goodes, and destrueth his roialme whate he may.
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1569), H iij b. But what is a loyteror? A sucker of Honie, a spoyler of corne, a destroyer of fruite, naye a waster of money [etc.].
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 73. A man of an yll lyfe and an inordinate waster of the goodes of the Church.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, I. i. B 3. Diuers Roman Knights (The profuse wasters of their patrimonies).
1701. Penn, in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 72. Learn who have been the wasters of timber.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 8. This waster of ink, this defiler of paper.
1842. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), II. 18. No waster was she of her tears, or her smiles.
1883. American, VII. 6. But the good sense of the majority soon suppressed these wasters of time.
c. An action or habit that causes waste.
a. 1633. G. Herbert, Outlandish Prov. (1640), 11. Building and marrying of Children are great wasters.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. 75. Gaming, that great waster of time as well as fortune, is not his vice.
2. One who lays waste, despoils or plunders; a devastator, ravager, plunderer.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xvi. 4. Moab, be thou the lurkyng place of hem fro the face of the wastere [Vulg. a facie vastatoris].
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 5310. Þe werreour of all þe werd & wastoure of ynde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 518/1. Wastowre, of a place, dilapidator.
1544. Supplic. to King (E.E.T.S.), 42. Truly no lytle wasters, spoylers, and robbers; and that of the most poore.
1575. Luther’s Comm. Gal. ii. 9. Of a persecuter and waster of the Church, he was made an Apostle.
1583. Babington, Commandm., viii. (1590), 321. It can not bee, that our heartes should bee right in affections towardes our brethren, and wee spoylers and wasters, or any way harmers of the commodities which they inioy.
1738. Wesley, Ps. cxxxvii. xi. The Lord shall all thy Pow’r o’erthrow And lay the mighty Waster waste.
1817. Scott, Harold, I. ix. Witikind the Waster.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. II. 649. And press around each new-come man to learn If Harfleur now the pagan wasters burn.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyss., 115. Odysseus … the waster of cities.
† b. One who or something that destroys. Const. of, to. Obs. rare.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 791. Þu art … confourt of wrech, waster of syn.
c. 1400. Cursor M., 27983 (Cotton Galba). Þis licheri es … waster of man-kin.
1646. Hammond, Of Conscience, § 67. 35. That only sin continued in for any long time … was a far greater waster to Conscience.
Prov. 1672. W. Walker, Parœm., 27. Water is a waster. Aqua dentes habet.
3. The designation of a class of thieves mentioned along with ‘Roberdesmen’ and ‘Drawlatches’ in a statute of Edw. III. Obs. exc. arch.
The occurrence of the word in the AF. statute of 1331 is no proof that it was current in English at that date. All subsequent examples merely echo the statute.
1331, 1581. [see ROBERDSMEN].
1513. trans. Act 5 Edw. III., c. 14. Bycause there hath ben dyuers manslaughters, felonies, and roberies done in tymes past, by people that be called Roberdesmen, wastes [sic], and Drawlaches.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Wastors, a kind of Thieves, or Robbers anciently known by that Name.
1890. Conan Doyle, White Company, iv. It shall never be said whilst I am Bailiff of Southampton, that any waster, riever, drawlatch or murtherer came scathless away from me and my posse.
¶ Misused to render AF. westour in a statute relating to Wales. Obs.–1
The AF. word represents Welsh gwestwr (f. gwest lodging, hospitality + gwr man), a vagrant who went about exacting free board and lodging.
1543. trans. Act 4 Hen. IV., c. 27. Mischieues, whiche hath happened before this tyme in ye land at wales, by many wasters, rymours, mynstrels, and other vacabondes [orig. Westours, Rymours, Ministralx & autres vacabondes].
4. a. An animal that is wasting away or losing flesh, or that will not fatten. Also attrib. as † waster ox.
14[?]. in Walter of Henley’s Husb. (1890), 51. Þe felle ox costithe as moche and more þen þe beste ox for yeff he be a wayster ox he moste be þe more spared.
1614. Markham, Cheap & Good Husb., II. [II.] i. 45. Which [healthfulness of an ox] you shall know by a good taile and a good pyzel, for if the haire … be lost, then hee is a waster and will be long in feeding [for the butcher].
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xli. § 3 (1700), 308. A lean … slender Pike, though he seem to advance in length; yet is commonly a waster, and in a decaying condition;… yet he’ll live and be as hungry and greedy as ever.
1895. E. Angl. Gloss., Waster, a rabbit or other animal that looks like a dier, wasting away.
1907. Daily Chron., 13 Sept., 6/7. In an adjoining shed there was a ‘waster’ [i.e., a cow affected with tuberculosis], which was so ill that it could not stand up.
b. A bad waster: said of a jockey who has difficulty in ‘wasting’ (see WASTE v. 11 c).
1833. Q. Rev., XLIX. 399. He is a bad waster, and is much punished to bring himself to the three-year-old weights.
1849. Bentley’s Misc., XXVI. 581. Some men are bad wasters, when nothing but very severe exercise, aided by medicine,… suffices to get off the last twenty-four ounces.
5. Something that causes or allows waste or loss of material.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 142/1. [Sluices] also act as wasters, to allow the surplus water of a reservoir to escape.
1880. Spurgeon, Ploughm. Pict., 135. A leaking tap is a great waster.
b. A foreign body in the wick of a candle which causes it to gutter and waste. dial.
1788. G. Wilson, Coll. Masonic Songs, 72 (Jam.). Oft on the wick there hangs a waster, which makes the candle burn the faster.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Wasther, a thief in the candle.
1886. W. Somerset Gloss., Waster.
c. Path. = COMEDO.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 752. It is also known as grub, worm, black-head, or ‘waster.’
II. 6. Something rejected as waste.
a. An article of faulty or inferior manufacture.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Wasters, damaged or misshapen goods. North.
1828. [Carr], Craven Gloss., Waster, any thing among wares that is damaged or of inferior workmanship.
1829. J. Hunter, Hallamsh. Gloss., Waisters, articles of cutlery laid aside on account of any imperfection.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 360. The former [i.e., needles with broken eyes] … are thrown aside as wasters.
1846. Greener, Sci. Gunnery, 135. A great number of barrels declared ‘wasters,’ such as … having holes in the sides, or some other fault sufficient to condemn them in the eyes of a … barrel-maker.
1869. F. Kohn, Iron & Steel Manuf., 106/1. If cast in a fireclay mould the contraction was still irregular, and 10 per cent. of all tyre castings were ‘wasters.’
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 177/2. Such lenses, together with those that possess … other defects, are technically called ‘wasters.’
1880. P. W. Flower, Hist. Trade in Tin, xiii. 173. Some of the sheets thus thrown out are called menders…, others are called wasters, for which there is always a market at a reduction in price; the worst are called waster waste.
1892. Athenæum, 20 April, 577/1. A pottery, worked at however distant a period, leaves traces of coccj and ‘wasters.’
1899. Somerset Guardian, etc., 25 Sept., 8/2, Advt. Galvanized Corrugated Iron, for Roofing, best quality only, no wasters.
b. An animal, bird, etc., that is not good enough to be kept for breeding purposes.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 405. A young sow,… having as many as nine pigs, it could not be expected any of them would be so properly fat for wasters, as if she had brought but four or five.
1904. Nature, 25 Aug., 408/2. But now let him breed from his ‘wasters’ and he will find that the extracted blacks are pure and give blacks only.
