[f. WASTE v. + -ING2.]
1. a. That lays waste, devastates or destroys.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 43. And te oðre … liueð i godes luue, wiðuten euch heate of þe hali gast, þat bearneð se lihte, wiðute wastinde brune in alle hise icorene.
1535. Coverdale, Dan. viii. 13. The waistinge abhominacion.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 46. And see the Cities and the Townes defac’t, By wasting Ruine of the cruell Foe.
a. 1646. Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, iii. (1652), 190. Sin is of a wasting nature: Sin layeth wast Countreyes and places that people live in.
1707. Rowe, Success H. M.’s Arms, 14. The dreadful Ravage of the wasting War.
1738. Wesley, Hymn, ‘To Thee, O Lord, our God and King,’ ii. Whate’er is human ebbs and flows As wasting Time prevails.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. i. Here thy temple was, And is, despite of war and wasting fire.
1808. Scott, Marmion, II. x. The wasting sea-breeze keen Had worn the pillar’s carving quaint.
1889. J. B. Bury, Later Rom. Emp., II. i. I. 66. Stilicho … departed to Salona, allowing Alaric to proceed on his wasting way into the lands of Hellas.
b. That undermines strength and vitality. Of a disease: Causing atrophy or gradual decay.
a. 1600. Sir J. Davies, Epigr., xxxvi. 21. The wasting Hectique, and the Quartain Feuer.
a. 1721. Prior, 24 Songs, iii. 4. A lingering fever’s wasting pain.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xi. A haggard paleness, which seemed the effect of care or of dissipation, or of both these wasting causes combined.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Shops & Tenants. A slow, wasting consumption prevented the eldest girl from continuing her exertions.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., II. xxi. III. 384. The state of his own health, too infirm to encounter, with safety, the wasting heats of an African summer.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 564. Wasting diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and phthisis.
2. That is being gradually consumed or destroyed; decaying, waning, passing away.
1340–70. Alex. & Dind., 980. In þis wastinge word we ne wone nouht euere.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. v. 8. These Eyes, like Lampes, whose wasting Oyle is spent, Waxe dimme.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., Pref. e 2. The other Mandril … has an even neck instead of a taper one, and runs in a Collar, that by the help of a Screw, and a joynt made like M in the Figure, it can be still adjustned to the wearing or wasting neck.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, II. 11. And now the latter Watch of wasting Night, And setting Stars, to kindly Rest invite.
1738. Wesley, Hymn, ‘Thee we adore, Eternal Name,’ ii. Our wasting Lives grow shorter still As Months and Days increase.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 272. The wasting cliff at Pakefield.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 889. For the wasting muscles massage and electrical treatment should be employed.
b. Sport. (See WASTE v. 11 c.)
1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, xvii. 166. It was once no uncommon sight at Newmarket to see, daily, ten or a dozen wasting jockeys returning from an eight-mile walk, thoroughly exhausted.
Hence Wastingly adv.
1552. Huloet, Wastinglye, or wastfullye, prodige.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Discov. (1640), 123. Not to cause the trouble of making Breviates by writing too riotous, and wastingly.
1834. H. Taylor, Artevelde, I. III. v. 164. No poison works so wastingly amongst them As a low diet … yea, it brings them down.
a. 1853. Wardlaw, Lect. Jas. (1869), 241. Thus consuming, and wastingly, and wantonly, and wickedly, abusing the divine bounty.
