waste
part of speech
noun (waste, wastes); verb (waste, wastes, wasted, wasting); adjective (waste)
meaning for a pupil
1) Waste is rubbish: things that are thrown away because they are not wanted. tree →
2) A waste is something used badly or for nothing: a waste of time, a waste of money. tree →
3) To waste means to use more than you need, or to use something for nothing. tree →
4) Waste land is land that is empty and not used. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths: what is thrown away or lost: leftover cloth, wasted water, time or money; taken away from the total: useful = total − waste; waste per day over many days needs multiplying. In science and caring for the planet: reduce, reuse, recycle; food waste; body waste. Phrases: a waste of time, waste paper, waste bin, food waste, go to waste, waste water.
examples
- He wasted 20 minutes waiting. tree →
- The family makes 5 kg of waste a week. tree →
- Of 10 m of cloth, 1 m is waste. tree →
- Do not waste paper. tree →
- Put the waste in the right recycling bin. tree →
- Do not let the food go to waste. tree →
- Arguing about it is a waste of time. tree →
- Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth saves wasted water. tree →
- But there is no time to waste. tree →
note
Homophone: «waist» (the middle of your body) sounds the same. Waste is taken away: useful = total − waste. Trap: waste per day over many days needs multiplying.
In the corpora
- Living plants use up some fish waste, add oxygen in the light and give fish places to hide.
- Brown rats live wherever people live; they eat our waste and shelter in drains, sewers and buildings.
- So nothing is wasted: summer grass becomes winter food, winter muck becomes spring fertiliser, and the next year starts again.
- Poo and wee are not just waste.
- «Pooh! boating!» says Toad — a silly waste of time; he has found «the real thing».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «waste» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.