[f. WASTE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of laying waste; devastation.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27839. [Covetousness causes] manslaghter and suik, wasting and were.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 12. The same Scottes … make … burnynges murders wastinges and depopulations in this his realme.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 83. Except he had left taknes quhair he had beine in Robrie, Spoylzie, and Waisting of the kirkes.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. iii. (1674), 4. The miserable wasting of their Country … in … Civil Wars.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., 30. The Horrors that attend the Wasting of Kingdoms, and Sacking of Cities.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 164. For wasting of the boar That mars with tooth and tusk and fiery feet Green pasturage [etc.] … I praise her not.
2. The action of using or spending lavishly or to no profit. † Also concr., that which is thus wasted.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23850. Ai to spell and noght to spede, wasting it es o godds sede.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 25. He bad wastoure go worche what he best couthe, And wynnen his wastyng with somme manere crafte.
1523. in Acc. Fam. Innes (1864), 97. His friends tak him and put him in fermance for eschewin of ony forther waisting of his saidis landis and gudis.
1867. Pusey, Eleven Addr., iii. (1908), 24. He foresaw Adam’s wasting of His grace.
3. Gradual diminution or decrease; gradual wear or loss.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 73. Boile þam togidre to þe wastyng of þe iuysez.
1509. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s, Bp.’s Stortford (1882), 31. Item ressived ffor wastyng of torchis when that jenyns wyfe was beryed and at her monthe mynde, ij d.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VIII. xxvi. His clothes all patcht with more then honest thrift, And clouted shoon were nail’d for fear of wasting.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 416. Two strong dams … to prevent the water from wasting.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 87. To husband out life’s taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, xvii. When he remembered how friendly everybody was in his new world, he forgot the rapid wasting of his little fortune.
4. Gradual decay of life or organic tissue; gradual loss of strength and vitality; consumption, atrophy.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. lvii. (1495), 174. The bones somtyme ben greuyd of wastynge of humours of the marow.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Tabo, a consumption, wastynge, or putrifaction of thinges.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 81 b. So that if he shaketh him not off betimes by suche wasting of bloud as he will make, thereby he is quickly enfeebled.
1628. A. Leighton, Appeal to Parlt., 143. The groning of the brute and sencelesse creatures amongst us, under murreings and wastings.
1671. Milton, P. R., II. 256. Though hunger still remain: so it remain Without this bodies wasting, I content me.
1808. Jamieson, Wasting, a consumption, a decline.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Analosis … a consumption, wasting, or atrophy.
1893. Daily News, 9 Jan., 3/4. A baby who is rapidly recovering from ‘wasting,’ a very general malady among the little ones of the poor.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 229. Wasting of the levator palati and of the vocal cord muscles cannot actually be seen.
b. Sport. Reduction of weight by ‘training down.’
1856. H. H. Dixon, Post & Paddock, xii. 207. With medicine and vigorous wasting, they can come to their weight again … in three weeks.
1913. R. H. Gretton, Mod. Hist. Engl. People, I. vii. 191. His [Fred Archer’s] suicide was attributed to depression of spirits caused by the incessant ‘wasting’ to keep down his weight [as a jockey].
5. Mining. (See quots.)
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 39. The first operation to which the iron ore is subjected, is wasting; that is exposing the stones to a moderate heat, which volatilises any extraneous mixture of the ores.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 70. Wastings, workings.
