Obs. Forms: 3 wasti, 4 wasty, 6 vaistie, waisty, wastie. [Altered form (after WASTE a.) of ME. WESTY a.] A. adj.
1. Desolate, desert.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 43 (Titus MS.). And hwat ȝif ha beoð þe wone, þat tu … schalt greni godles inwið wasti wahes [Bodley MS. westi wahes].
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xx. (Blasius), 37. & þare in-to [a] wasty stede heremytis lyf wel lang he lede.
15[?]. Alex. Hume, Ep. G. Moncrieff, Poems (S. T. S.), 61. Of barran Syrt, and wastie Scythia.
b. Phr. Wasty wanes, wones, a desolate place of habitation; also, a spacious place.
c. 1400. Sc. Trojan War, II. 2444. It was a fair rowme wasty wones.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvi. 18. First of all in dance wes Pryd, with bair wyld bak and bonet on syd, Lyk to mak vaistie wanis.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. viii. 6. Alhaill the barnage flokkis furth atanis, Left voyd the tovn and strenth with waisty wanis.
2. Extravagant in upkeep.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 129. Þei han many grete houses, costlewe & wasty.
B. sb. A desert place.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 148. An ermyt … That woned in wasti vi him an.
