Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who wastes, especially one who wastes money; a profligate.
- n. An idler or a loafer.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Anything cast away as spoiled in the making, or bad; waste; refuse.
- n. Anything allowed to run to waste. Specifically— Waste land; a common.
Carew, Survey of Cornwall, fol. 13. - n. A profligate.
Wiktionary
- n. One who is profligate, who wastes time or resources extravagantly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any waste thing or substance.
- n. Waste land or common land.
- n. A profligate.
- n. A neglected child; a street Arab.
- n. Anything cast away as bad or useless, as imperfect bricks, china, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who dissipates resources self-indulgently
Etymologies
- wast(e) + -rel (as in scoundrel).
Examples
“wastrel" with a rifle, for his shy eyes gave the lie to his oily tongue.”
Campaign Pictures of the War in South Africa (1899-1900) Letters from the Front
“There might be problems with the fileshare site or your ability to access it, or with servers and attachment sizes, or with wastrel writers making cock-ups.”
“The play follows Hester's affair with former RAF pilot Freddie Page, who turns out to be a callow wastrel.”
“Mr. May interprets the parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, as not about divine forgiveness but about a father who happens to prefer his wastrel offspring to his dutiful brother.”
“A shrewd ruler, not a wastrel, though she worked her bed as no one before or since.”
“Roman tales of Cleopatra as louche and languid, a bedizened wastrel, are probably crudely slanted.”
“If anything is clear after last week's meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy it is that the Lady is not for turning from her mission to prevent the wastrel nations of the euro zone from feasting on the productivity and hard work of her voters.”
The Wall Street Journal: Global Markets Move, but Merkel Won't
“As almost every Christian knows, the story is about a father who forgives his wastrel son, a young man who has not only spent all that he has on fast living, but also has rejected the father.”
The Huffington Post: Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Rest In Peace Christopher Hitchens
“Put that notion on the table today and we could probably cut a half-trillion AT LEAST from that massive wastrel.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wastrel’.
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1128 more...
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Fictional music genres
fudgepunk, whangboogie, electrogush, jizzbilly, glambient, queasy listening, chip shop, baroque'n'roll, prog folk, chemo, riant grrl, blingfolk and 556 more...
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VOCUBLARY
purge, wield, remedy, shepherd, numen, bizarre, enamor, bigotry, tumult, commotion, agitate, rebuff and 8 more...
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Words That Can Be Typed Entirely With Just The ...
Words made of the following: qwertasdfgzxcvb. I've stood on the shoulders of giants... users mollusque and reesetee made similar lists before I even existed on Wordnik. :)
stewardesses, red tea, waves, axes, wrest, qat, waver, created, dressed, stress, crater, vexes and 49 more...
frogapplause Go birch yourself, yarb. Feb 26, 2010
yarb I am the village wastrel. Feb 26, 2010
frogapplause Yarb birched the village wastrel. Feb 26, 2010
madmouth almost synonymous with 'rich man's son' Apr 13, 2009
nicsims a wasteful person Sep 16, 2007