waste

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noun

1 missing an opportunity to do/use sth

ADJECTIVE

▪ absolute, complete, total, utter

▪

The whole thing has been a complete waste of time.

▪ big, colossal, enormous, great, huge, tremendous

▪ awful, criminal, senseless, shocking, terrible

▪

a criminal waste of public money

▪ needless, pointless, unnecessary, useless

▪ tragic

▪

a tragic waste of human life

▪ expensive

▪ conspicuous

VERB + WASTE

▪ go to

▪

If nobody comes all this food will go to waste.

▪ cause

▪ avoid

▪

Try to avoid unnecessary waste.

▪ cut, cut down on, reduce

▪ minimize

PREPOSITION

▪ waste of

▪

a waste of energy/resources

2 unwanted substances/things

ADJECTIVE

▪ dangerous, harmful, hazardous, poisonous, toxic

▪

a dump containing hazardous waste

▪ high-level, low-level

▪ recyclable (esp. BrE), recycled

▪ agricultural, commercial, industrial

▪ domestic, household, kitchen

▪

All household waste should be disposed of in strong garbage bags.

▪ clinical (BrE), hospital, infectious (esp. AmE), medical

▪ nuclear, radioactive

▪ chemical

▪ plastic

▪ electronic

▪

the vast amounts of electronic waste being shipped to developing countries

▪ green, organic

▪ animal, fish, hog (AmE), livestock, poultry

▪ bodily, body, human

▪ factory, mining, slaughterhouse (esp. AmE)

▪

new regulations on the feeding of slaughterhouse waste to cattle

▪ garden (esp. BrE), plant, vegetable, wood, yard (AmE)

▪ municipal

▪ liquid, solid

▪ energy, food

▪ building (BrE), construction (AmE)

▪

Three quarters of all construction waste was recycled.

VERB + WASTE

▪ create, generate, produce

▪

Tonnes of waste are produced every year.

▪ dispose of, dump, get rid of

▪

More people are dumping waste illegally.

▪ clean up, remove

▪

the highly expensive task of cleaning up toxic waste

▪ burn, incinerate

▪

an incinerator for burning hospital waste

▪ bury, store

▪ process, treat

▪

facilities for processing radioactive waste

▪ convert into sth, recycle

▪

technology to convert solid waste into renewable energy

▪ deal with, handle, manage

▪

the best solutions for managing waste

▪ cut, cut down on, minimize, reduce

▪ eliminate

▪ export, import

▪

Industrialized countries continue to export their waste.

WASTE + VERB

▪ contaminate sth, pollute sth

▪

areas contaminated by industrial waste

WASTE + NOUN

▪ collection

▪ disposal, incineration

▪ storage

▪ processing, recycling (BrE), reprocessing (BrE), treatment

▪

a waste processing plant

▪ management

▪ minimization, reduction

▪ basket, bin (BrE), paper basket (esp. BrE)

▪ dump, facility, repository (esp. AmE), site, tip (BrE)

▪

The river was used for years as an industrial waste dump.

▪ incinerator

▪ pipe (esp. BrE)

3 wastes areas of ground not lived in or cultivated

ADJECTIVE

▪ desert, frozen, icy

▪

the frozen wastes of Antarctica

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verb

ADVERB

▪ (not) completely, (not) entirely, (not) totally

▪

In the end her efforts were not entirely wasted.

▪ just, simply

▪

You're just wasting your breath. She never listens.

▪ largely

VERB + WASTE

▪ can't afford to, not want to

▪

He didn't want to waste valuable time in idle gossip.

▪ hate to

▪

Their father hated to waste energy.

▪ be a shame to, seem a shame to

▪

It seems a shame to waste this good food.

▪ not be going to, not intend to, refuse to

▪

I'm not going to waste any more time on the problem.

PREPOSITION

▪ on

▪

Don't waste your money on a hotel room.

PHRASES

▪ no time to waste

▪

Hurry up—there's no time to waste!

Waste is used with these nouns as the object: ↑breath, ↑chance, ↑effort, ↑energy, ↑fuel, ↑hour, ↑minute, ↑money, ↑resource, ↑space, ↑sympathy, ↑talent, ↑time, ↑vote, ↑youth

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adj.

Waste is used with these nouns: ↑land, ↑paper, ↑product, ↑water