[f. as prec.] The action of spending lavishly or prodigally. Also with away.
1632. Sherwood, A squandering, bobance, bobans.
1677. Miége, Fr. Dict., II. s.v., A Squandering away.
1721. Bailey, Profuseness, a … lavishness or squandering of Money.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. 79/1. Our granting of a subsidy … would be worse than squandering.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 228. This squandering causes heavy taxes.
1859. Holland, Gold Foil, xxvi. 316. The squandering of precious means by organized bands of sane business men.
transf. and fig. 1763. D. Arnot, in J. Mackenzie, Life M. Bruce (1914), vii. 100. Nothing is more shameful than the squandering away of time.
1839–40. W. Irving, Chron. Wolfert’s Roost (1855), 65. He had experienced … its dissipation of the spirits, and squanderings of the heart.
