different between waste vs havoc

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?st, IPA^(key): /we?st/
• Rhymes: -e?st
• Homophone: waist

Etymology 1

From Middle English waste (“a waste”, noun), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste (“a waste”), from Frankish *w?st? (“a waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?weh?- (“empty, wasted”).

Noun

waste (countable and uncountable, plural wastes)

1. Excess of material, useless by-products or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
2. Excrement or urine.

   The cage was littered with animal waste

3. A waste land; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
4. A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
5. A large tract of uncultivated land.
6. (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
7. A vast expanse of water.
8. A disused mine or part of one.
9. The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.

   That was a waste of time

   Her life seemed a waste

10. Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
11. Gradual loss or decay.
12. A decaying of the body by disease; wasting away.
13. (rare) Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; See "to lay waste"
14. (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.
15. (geology) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English waste (“waste”, adjective), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast (“waste”), from Frankish *w?st? (“waste, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *w?sto- (“empty, wasted”). Cognate with Old High German wuosti, wuasti (“waste, empty”), Old Saxon w?sti (“desolate”), Old English w?ste (“waste, barren, desolate, empty”).

Adjective

waste (comparative more waste, superlative most waste)

1. (now rare) Uncultivated, uninhabited.
2. Barren; desert.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 255:

     For centuries the shrine at Mecca had been of merely local importance, far outshone by the Temple of the Jews in Jerusalem, whose cult Christians had in good measure renewed by their pilgrimage in honour of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, while leaving the actual site of the Jerusalem Temple dishonoured and waste.

3. Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
4. Superfluous; needless.
5. Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
6. Unfortunate; disappointing. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Usage notes

Same meanings as wasted.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English wasten (“to waste, lay waste”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French waster (“to waste, devastate”) (compare also the variant gaster and French gâter from a related Old French word); the Anglo-Norman form waster was either from Frankish *w?stijan (“to waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *w?sto- (“empty, wasted”), or alternatively from Latin vast?re, present active infinitive of vast? and influenced by the Frankish; the English word was assisted by similarity to native Middle English westen ("to waste"; > English weest). Cognate with Old High German wuostan, wuastan, wuostjan (“to waste”) (Modern German wüsten), Old English w?stan (“to lay waste, ravage”).

Verb

waste (third-person singular simple present wastes, present participle wasting, simple past and past participle wasted)

1. (transitive) to devastate, destroy

   • Thou barrein ground, whome winters wrath hath wasted, / Art made a myrrour to behold my plight.

   • The Tiber / Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.

2. (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly.
   • 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

     Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

   • 1909, Francis Galton, Memories of my life, page 69

     E. Kay (1822-1897), afterwards Lord Justice of Appeal, had rooms on the same staircase as myself, and we wasted a great deal of time together, both in term and in my second summer vacation. .

3. (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
4. (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.

   • until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness

   • 1769, William Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V

     Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him.

5. (intransitive) Gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
6. (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.

   • The barrel of meal shall not waste.

7. (law) To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.

Derived terms

Synonyms

• (slang, to kill or murder): cack, top, duppy (see also Thesaurus:kill)

Translations

See also

• Waste on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• waste in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Sweat, Weast, swate, sweat, tawse, wetas

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???s.t?/

Verb

waste

1. singular past indicative and subjunctive of wassen

Tocharian B

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

waste ?

1. refuge, sanctuary

West Flemish

Noun

waste f

1. laundry, clothes that need to be washed, or just have been washed.

English

Alternative forms

• havock (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English havok, havyk, from Old French havok in the phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) a signal to soldiers to seize plunder, from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hæv.?k/

Noun

havoc (usually uncountable, plural havocs)

1. widespread devastation, destruction

   • Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
2. mayhem

Usage notes

The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc.

Derived terms

• play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

Translations

Verb

havoc (third-person singular simple present havocs, present participle havocking, simple past and past participle havocked)

1. To pillage.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act I, Scene II:

     To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

2. To cause havoc.

Usage notes

As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, the gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

Translations

Interjection

havoc

1. A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

   • Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.

References