wasted
part of speech
verb (waste, wastes, wasted, wasting); adjective (wasted)
meaning for a pupil
1) Wasted means used badly or carelessly, or lost without being useful. tree →
2) A wasted chance or wasted time brought nothing good. tree →
3) Wasted can mean very thin and weak from illness (rare). tree →
4) Waste (noun) is rubbish or things thrown away. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: an amount lost and taken away; what is left = total − wasted. In science and everyday life: wasted water, food and energy; saving energy by turning off lights; recycling so less is wasted. Phrases: «wasted time», «a wasted trip», «go to waste», «waste of time».
examples
- He wasted 3 of the 20 sheets. tree →
- Half the water was wasted. tree →
- How much food was wasted? tree →
- 10 minutes were wasted waiting. tree →
- Leaving the tap running means water is wasted. tree →
- It was a wasted trip because the shop was closed. tree →
- Don't let that good food go to waste. tree →
- Turning off the lights stops energy from being wasted. tree →
- What, all that money wasted for nothing! tree →
note
Past of «waste»: «wasted». Do not confuse «waste» with «waist» (the middle of your body) — they sound the same. Maths: take away from the total; what is left = total − wasted. Trap: «only 2 were wasted» still means subtract 2.
In the corpora
- So nothing is wasted: summer grass becomes winter food, winter muck becomes spring fertiliser, and the next year starts again.
- Will something be damaged or wasted?
- The lesson was wasted, and he had to own up and make a practice chart for the fridge.
- Zara wasted an hour.
- Effort that ends in a collapse or a loss is not wasted; the skills and learning stay with you.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wasted» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.