English words for 'wasting time'
Closest matches for "wasting time" are ranked by semantic fit across dictionary definitions.
Search results
adj
noun
adj
noun
adj
noun
verb
- waste time
- To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.
- consider not very seriously
- talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
- behave carelessly or indifferently
- (ambitransitive) To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet
- To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
- To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal
noun
verb
noun
- Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).
- An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
- An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
- Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- eliminate urine
- (intransitive, now Southern US, often with 'with') Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
- (intransitive) Often followed by about or around: to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.
- (UK, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, euphemistic slang, intransitive or reflexive) To urinate.
noun
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- consider not very seriously
- act frivolously
- (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.
- (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
- (transitive) To squander or waste.
- (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
noun
- a cold pudding made of layers of sponge cake spread with fruit or jelly; may be decorated with nuts, cream, or chocolate
- a detail that is considered insignificant
- something of small importance
- A particular kind of pewter.
- (cooking) An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
- An insignificant amount of money.
- (figurative) A very small amount (of something).
- (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.
- (figurative) Anything that is of little importance or worth.
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- spend wastefully
- engage in amorous play
- become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously
- indulge in a carefree or voluptuous way of life
- behave extremely cruelly and brutally
- (transitive) To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away).
- (intransitive) To act wantonly; to be lewd or lascivious.
- (intransitive) To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
adj
noun
verb
- (transitive) To waste time.
- (transitive, slang) To cheat; to swindle.
- (transitive, slang) To masturbate.
- (transitive, computing, slang) To manipulate a value at the level of individual bits (binary digits).
- (transitive, slang) To molest.
- (intransitive) To totter, like a child learning to walk; to daddle.
- manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination
- deprive of by deceit
intj
noun
noun
verb
verb
noun
verb
- (UK) To waste time.
- (ornithology, of a bird) To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
- To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
- To blow a short gust.
- To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
- To waffle, talk aimlessly.
- (intransitive) To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
- (transitive) To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
- To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.
noun
noun
- Something useless on which time or effort is wasted.
- A rarity.
- (journalism) A news item of no real significance, usually of whimsical or sentimental nature, placed at the end of a news bulletin or in a newspaper as filler. A dead donkey can often be removed from the programme or publication if a more significant story needs extra time or space.
noun
- the process of wasting
- anything lost by wear or waste
- (uncountable) The amount or proportion of something that is wasted or lost by deterioration or other natural process.
- (countable) Anything lost by wear or waste.
- (uncountable) The periodical turnover of personnel in an organisation by death, retirement or resignation, as perceived by those aspiring to promotion or appointment in the organisation.
- (hunting, countable) The act of abandoning animal carcasses or parts, usually illegal.
- (uncountable) Goods that are damaged, out of date, reduced, or generally unsaleable, which are destined to be thrown away and which are written off as a loss.
verb
- spend or use time
- work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function
- occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere
- have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
- form or compose
- be priced at
- have an existence, be extant
- have life, be alive
- be identical to; be someone or something
- be identical or equivalent to
- represent, as of a character on stage
- to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted — used only in infinitive form
- To occupy a place.
- (with there, or dialectally it, as dummy subject) To exist.
- To pass or spend (time).
- (formal) Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
- Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective or prepositional phrase.
- (rare and regional, chiefly in the past tense) Used to link two noun clauses: a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of the main clause took place) and a period of time indicating how long ago that day was.
- (with a dummy subject it) Used to indicate the time of day.
- To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation.
- Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.
- Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
- To take a period of time.
- (often impersonal, with it as a dummy subject) Used to indicate ambient conditions such as weather, light, noise or air quality.
- (with a cardinal numeral) Used to state the age of a subject in years.
- Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent.
- (in perfect tenses) Elliptical form of "be here", "go to and return from" or similar, also extending to certain other senses of "go".
- (auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
- (now usually literary) To exist; to have real existence, to be alive.
- Used to link a subject to a measurement.
- To occur, to take place.
- Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
- (colloquial, humorous) To have (a condition, especially a mental or physical disability).
- Used to indicate that a predicate nominal applies to the subject.
- (dynamic / lexical be, especially in progressive tenses, conjugated non-suppletively in the present tense, see usage notes) To exist or behave in a certain way.
- (African-American Vernacular, Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, not conjugated) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
- (with since) Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event.
noun
verb
noun
verb
noun
- skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort
- The extent to which time is well used for the intended task.
- the ratio of the output to the input of any system
- (engineering, physics) The ratio of useful work to energy expended. Often given the symbol η.
- (US) A one-room apartment.
- The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose.
verb
noun
verb
noun
noun
- the trait of wasting resources
- any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted
- (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
- useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly
- Gradual loss or decay.
- (rare) Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste".
- Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
- A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
- (law) A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
- Excrement or urine.
- A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- (geology) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.
- A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
- A disused mine or part of one.
- A vast expanse of water.
- (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
- A large tract of uncultivated land.
verb
- spend thoughtlessly; throw away
- use inefficiently or inappropriately
- dispose of
- cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
- cause to grow thin or weak
- run off as waste
- become physically weaker
- get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
- spend extravagantly
- lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
- (intransitive) To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
- (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
- (transitive) To devastate; to destroy.
- (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
- (law) To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
- (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate.
adj
verb
- take up time or space
- pursue or resume
- take out or up with or as if with a scoop
- turn one's interest to
- accept
- take up as if with a sponge
- adopt
- take up a liquid or a gas either by adsorption or by absorption
- begin work or acting in a certain capacity, office or job
- return to a previous location or condition
- take up and practice as one's own
- occupy or take on
- take in, also metaphorically
- (transitive) To reprove or reproach (a person).
- (transitive) To remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway).
- (transitive) To occupy; to consume (space or time).
- (transitive) To absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
- (transitive) To join in (saying something).
- (transitive) To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.
- (transitive) To tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.)
- (transitive, sewing) To shorten (a garment), especially by hemming.
- (transitive) To address or discuss (an issue).
- (transitive, Canada) To review the solutions to a test or other assessment with a class.
- (transitive) To accept, to adopt (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.).
- (transitive, chiefly British) To pay off, to clear (a debt, loan, mortgage, etc.).
- (transitive) To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place).
- (transitive) To begin functioning in (a role or position), to assume (an office).
- (transitive) To implement, to employ, to put into use.
- (transitive) To begin to support or patronize, to sponsor (a person), to adopt as protégé.
- (ambitransitive) To resume, to return to something that was interrupted.
- (transitive, with 'on') To accept (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.) from.
- (transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To begin occupying and working (a plot of uncultivated land), to break in.
- (transitive) To pick up.
noun
verb
- To consume, to use up (time).
- To exhaust, to wear out.
- (mining) To break ground; to continue working.
- To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
- (ambitransitive) To pay out (money).
- (intransitive) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
- To be diffused; to spread.
- spend completely
- pay out
- use up a period of time in a specific way
noun
adj
noun
adj
noun
noun
verb
noun
- Something useless on which time or effort is wasted.
- A rarity.
- (journalism) A news item of no real significance, usually of whimsical or sentimental nature, placed at the end of a news bulletin or in a newspaper as filler. A dead donkey can often be removed from the programme or publication if a more significant story needs extra time or space.
noun
- the process of wasting
- anything lost by wear or waste
- (uncountable) The amount or proportion of something that is wasted or lost by deterioration or other natural process.
- (countable) Anything lost by wear or waste.
- (uncountable) The periodical turnover of personnel in an organisation by death, retirement or resignation, as perceived by those aspiring to promotion or appointment in the organisation.
- (hunting, countable) The act of abandoning animal carcasses or parts, usually illegal.
- (uncountable) Goods that are damaged, out of date, reduced, or generally unsaleable, which are destined to be thrown away and which are written off as a loss.
noun
- skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort
- The extent to which time is well used for the intended task.
- the ratio of the output to the input of any system
- (engineering, physics) The ratio of useful work to energy expended. Often given the symbol η.
- (US) A one-room apartment.
- The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose.
noun
- the trait of wasting resources
- any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted
- (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
- useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly
- Gradual loss or decay.
- (rare) Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste".
- Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
- A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
- (law) A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
- Excrement or urine.
- A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- (geology) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.
- A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
- A disused mine or part of one.
- A vast expanse of water.
- (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
- A large tract of uncultivated land.
verb
- spend thoughtlessly; throw away
- use inefficiently or inappropriately
- dispose of
- cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
- cause to grow thin or weak
- run off as waste
- become physically weaker
- get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
- spend extravagantly
- lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
- (intransitive) To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
- (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
- (transitive) To devastate; to destroy.
- (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
- (law) To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
- (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate.
adj
verb
- waste time
- To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.
- consider not very seriously
- talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
- behave carelessly or indifferently
- (ambitransitive) To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet
- To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
- To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal
noun
verb
noun
- Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).
- An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
- An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
- Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- eliminate urine
- (intransitive, now Southern US, often with 'with') Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
- (intransitive) Often followed by about or around: to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.
- (UK, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, euphemistic slang, intransitive or reflexive) To urinate.
noun
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- consider not very seriously
- act frivolously
- (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.
- (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
- (transitive) To squander or waste.
- (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
noun
- a cold pudding made of layers of sponge cake spread with fruit or jelly; may be decorated with nuts, cream, or chocolate
- a detail that is considered insignificant
- something of small importance
- A particular kind of pewter.
- (cooking) An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
- An insignificant amount of money.
- (figurative) A very small amount (of something).
- (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.
- (figurative) Anything that is of little importance or worth.
verb
- waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
- spend wastefully
- engage in amorous play
- become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously
- indulge in a carefree or voluptuous way of life
- behave extremely cruelly and brutally
- (transitive) To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away).
- (intransitive) To act wantonly; to be lewd or lascivious.
- (intransitive) To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
adj
noun
verb
- (transitive) To waste time.
- (transitive, slang) To cheat; to swindle.
- (transitive, slang) To masturbate.
- (transitive, computing, slang) To manipulate a value at the level of individual bits (binary digits).
- (transitive, slang) To molest.
- (intransitive) To totter, like a child learning to walk; to daddle.
- manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination
- deprive of by deceit
intj
noun
verb
noun
verb
- (UK) To waste time.
- (ornithology, of a bird) To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
- To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
- To blow a short gust.
- To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
- To waffle, talk aimlessly.
- (intransitive) To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
- (transitive) To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
- To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.
noun
verb
- spend or use time
- work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function
- occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere
- have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
- form or compose
- be priced at
- have an existence, be extant
- have life, be alive
- be identical to; be someone or something
- be identical or equivalent to
- represent, as of a character on stage
- to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted — used only in infinitive form
- To occupy a place.
- (with there, or dialectally it, as dummy subject) To exist.
- To pass or spend (time).
- (formal) Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
- Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective or prepositional phrase.
- (rare and regional, chiefly in the past tense) Used to link two noun clauses: a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of the main clause took place) and a period of time indicating how long ago that day was.
- (with a dummy subject it) Used to indicate the time of day.
- To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation.
- Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.
- Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
- To take a period of time.
- (often impersonal, with it as a dummy subject) Used to indicate ambient conditions such as weather, light, noise or air quality.
- (with a cardinal numeral) Used to state the age of a subject in years.
- Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent.
- (in perfect tenses) Elliptical form of "be here", "go to and return from" or similar, also extending to certain other senses of "go".
- (auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
- (now usually literary) To exist; to have real existence, to be alive.
- Used to link a subject to a measurement.
- To occur, to take place.
- Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
- (colloquial, humorous) To have (a condition, especially a mental or physical disability).
- Used to indicate that a predicate nominal applies to the subject.
- (dynamic / lexical be, especially in progressive tenses, conjugated non-suppletively in the present tense, see usage notes) To exist or behave in a certain way.
- (African-American Vernacular, Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, not conjugated) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
- (with since) Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event.
noun
verb
noun
verb
verb
noun
verb
noun
verb
- take up time or space
- pursue or resume
- take out or up with or as if with a scoop
- turn one's interest to
- accept
- take up as if with a sponge
- adopt
- take up a liquid or a gas either by adsorption or by absorption
- begin work or acting in a certain capacity, office or job
- return to a previous location or condition
- take up and practice as one's own
- occupy or take on
- take in, also metaphorically
- (transitive) To reprove or reproach (a person).
- (transitive) To remove (a ground or floor surface, including the bed of a road or the track of a railway).
- (transitive) To occupy; to consume (space or time).
- (transitive) To absorb (a liquid), to soak up.
- (transitive) To join in (saying something).
- (transitive) To begin doing (an activity) on a regular basis.
- (transitive) To tighten or wind in (a rope, slack, etc.)
- (transitive, sewing) To shorten (a garment), especially by hemming.
- (transitive) To address or discuss (an issue).
- (transitive, Canada) To review the solutions to a test or other assessment with a class.
- (transitive) To accept, to adopt (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.).
- (transitive, chiefly British) To pay off, to clear (a debt, loan, mortgage, etc.).
- (transitive) To take, to assume (one’s appointed or intended place).
- (transitive) To begin functioning in (a role or position), to assume (an office).
- (transitive) To implement, to employ, to put into use.
- (transitive) To begin to support or patronize, to sponsor (a person), to adopt as protégé.
- (ambitransitive) To resume, to return to something that was interrupted.
- (transitive, with 'on') To accept (a proposal, offer, request, cause, challenge, etc.) from.
- (transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To begin occupying and working (a plot of uncultivated land), to break in.
- (transitive) To pick up.
noun
verb
- To consume, to use up (time).
- To exhaust, to wear out.
- (mining) To break ground; to continue working.
- To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
- (ambitransitive) To pay out (money).
- (intransitive) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
- To be diffused; to spread.
- spend completely
- pay out
- use up a period of time in a specific way
noun
noun
- the trait of wasting resources
- any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted
- (law) reduction in the value of an estate caused by act or neglect
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
- useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly
- Gradual loss or decay.
- (rare) Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; see "to lay waste".
- Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
- A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
- Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
- The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.
- (law) A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
- Excrement or urine.
- A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
- (geology) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.
- A decaying of the body by disease; atrophy; wasting away.
- A disused mine or part of one.
- A vast expanse of water.
- (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
- A large tract of uncultivated land.
verb
- spend thoughtlessly; throw away
- use inefficiently or inappropriately
- dispose of
- cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
- cause to grow thin or weak
- run off as waste
- become physically weaker
- get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
- spend extravagantly
- lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
- (intransitive) To gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
- (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
- (transitive) To devastate; to destroy.
- (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to deteriorate; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.
- (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.
- (law) To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
- (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate.