wassail 
We did but . . . pledge you all 
In watsail. Tennyson, Princess, Prol. 
2. A festive occasion or meeting where drink- 
ing and pledging of healths are indulged in ; 
festivities; a drinking-bout; a carouse. 
The Iting doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, 
Keeps wansail. Shak., Hamlet, i. 4. 9. 
3. The liquor used on such occasions ; speciti- 
eally, ale, mixed with a smaller amount of wine, 
sweetened and flavored with spices, fruit, etc. 
Wmsail, or rather the wassail bowl, . . . was a bowl of 
spiced ale formerly carried about by young women on 
New-year's eve. Slrutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 46<i. 
But let no footstep beat the floor. 
Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, cv. 
4f. A merry drinking-song. 
Have you done your wassail? 'tis a handsome drowsy 
ditty, I'll assure you. Beau, and Ft., Woman-Hater, ili. i. 
= Syn. 2. Revel, Debatuh, etc. SeecaroiMaP. 
'wassail (wos'al), ». [Also wassel; < wassail, «.] 
I. trans. To drink to the health or prosperity 
of: as, to wassail the apple (an old custom oil 
Christmas eve). 
Wassaile the Trees, that they may beare 
You many a Plum, and many a Peare ; 
For more or lesse fruits tliey will bring. 
As you doe give them Wassailing. 
Herriek, Hesperldea, Ceremonies for Christniiis, iv. 
The ceremonyofimsaoiZinjr the apple orchardon Twelfth 
Nigfat is said to be obsolete. 
The Academy, April 19, 1890, p. 265. 
H. iiitrans. To drink healths ; carotise. 
Spending all the day, and a good part of the niglit, in 
dancing, carolling, and waMaiiiri!/. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadiii, iii. 
wassail-bont (wos'al-bout), «. Same as u-as- 
sail, 2. 
Many a wassail-bout 
Wore the long winter out. 
Longfellow, Skeleton in Annor. 
wassail-bowl (wos'al-bol), n. The bowl in 
which wassail was mixed and served. 
The woods, or some near town 
That is a neighbour to the bordering down. 
Hath drawn them thither, Ixiut some lusty sport, 
Or spiced wastail-htncl. 
Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, v. 1. 
wassail-bread (wos'al-bred), ». Bread eaten 
at a wassail. 
wassail-candle (wo8'al-kan''dl), h. A candle 
used at ii wussail. 
wassail-cup ( wos'al-kup), ». A cup from which 
wassail was drunk, 
wassailer (wos'al-fer), n. One who takes part 
in a wassail or drinking-bout. 
The rudeness and 8will6<l insolence 
Of such late ipotsailert. Milton, C'omus, 1. 179. 
wassail-bom (wos'al-horn), n. A drinkini;- 
horn of the middle ages. The name is taken from 
the appearance of the word wassail in the silver-gilt mount- 
ing of an ancient horn preserved at Queen's College, Oxford. 
wassel, n. and v. See wassail. 
Wassert (wos'fer), «. [Appar. < 6. wasser = E. 
water, perhaps through some popular myth 
imported from Germany. Cf. wassiniian.'] A 
water-demon (f). 
The horrible huge whales diil there appeare ; 
The wasjter that makes maryners to feare. 
The yewe Metanwrphosis (1600). 
Wassermant (wos'er-man), «. [< G. wasser, 
water, + maitn. man. (L'f. K. dial, wasscl-miiii, 
a scarecrow. Cf. icaterman.] A male sea-mon- 
ster of human form ; a sort of mennan. 
The grlesly Wassennan, that makes his game 
The flying ships with swiftnes to pursew. 
Spenser, V. Q., II. xii. -24. 
wassbef, c An old spelling of wasli. 
wast' (wost). See was. 
wast'-'t, «. An obsolete spelling of waist. 
wastable (was'ta-bl), a. [< waste''- + -able.'] 1 . 
Liable to waste. 
Fur ale that is newe is wastable with-owteii dowt. 
Balieei Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 129. 
2t. Wasteful. 
Fi)r much of this chaffare that is wastable 
Might be forlx>rne for dere and deceiuftble. 
Hakluyt'g Voyages, I. VXi. 
wastage (was'taj), n. [< wasted + -af/e.] Loss 
by use, wear, decay, leakage, etc. ; waste. 
The manufacture of it fshell niuneyl was lartje and con- 
stant, to replace the continual trastar/e which was caused 
by the sacrifice of so much up<»n the death of wealthy men. 
and by the propjtiat^>ry sacrifices perfornu-d by many 
tribes, especially those of the Coast RanKC. 
Pi,,,. Sei. Ml,., XXVIII. 301, 
There is a subtlety which here in Rome 
Men Uwk for in blind wastage of their lives. 
Not knowing where to seek it. 
Harpers May., LXXVIII. US. 
6833 
wastei (wast), a. [Formerly also wast; < ME. 
wast, waast, < OF. wast, (juast, gast, gaste, waste 
{/aire wast, make waste), < L. vastus, waste, 
desolate, vast: see vast. The word was con- 
fused with the ult. related early ME. weste, < 
AS. weste = OS. wosti = OFries. woste = OHG. 
wuosti, MHG. wuesti, G. wUst, waste, desolate: 
see waste''; ?;.] 1. Desert; desolate; unin- 
habited. 
So wide a forest and so waste as this. 
Sot famous Ardeyn, nor fowle Arlo, is. 
Spenser, Astropfael, 1. 9.5. 
He found him in a desert laud, and in the waste howl- 
ing wildernes.s. Deut. xxxii. 10. 
Far in the waste Soudan. 
Tennyson, Epitaph on General Gordon. 
2. In a state of desolation and decay; ruined; 
ruinous; blank; cheerless; dismal; dreary. 
Certayne old wast and broken howeses. 
Bemers, tr. of Froissart's Chron. , I. cclxix. 
I will make thee [Jerusalem] waste, and a reproach 
among the nations that are round about thee. 
Ezek. v. 14. 
3. Unused; uutilled; unproductive. 
It had layne wast two hundred yeares. 
Coryat, Crudities, I. I;'i9. 
Almost one-fourth of the cultivable land of a country 
which was held to be over-populated was lying waste. 
W. S. Orerjg, Irish Hist, for Ejig. Readers, p. 14.'i. 
4. Rejected as tmfit for use, or spoiled in the 
using; refuse; hence, of little or no value; 
useless: as, waste paper; waste materials. — 
5t. Idle ; empty ; vain ; of no value or signifi- 
cance. 
where is oure semely sone ? 
I trowe oure wittis be waste as wynde. 
York Plays, p. 157. 
Ue hath maud mi covenant wast. Wyclif, Gen. xvii. 14. 
His icagte wordes retournd to him in vaine. 
Spenser, ¥. Q., I, i. 42. 
6. Exuberant ; over-abundant ; hence, super- 
fluons; useless. 
Strangled with her waste fertility. 
Milton, t'oiuns, 1. 7'29. 
7t. Wasteful; prodigal; profuse. 
My rcaast expensis y wole with-drawe ; 
Now, certis, waast weel callid tliel be. 
For thei were spent my boost to blowe. 
My name to bero bothe on londe & see. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 179. 
To lay waste. See («!/i.— waste-steam pipe, in a 
steam-engine, a pipe for conveying away the steam that 
escapes through the safety-valve. 
was'te' (wast), H. [< ME. waste, < OF. wast, a 
waste, (juast, <jast, rast, waste, devastation ; cf . 
MHG. wante, a desert; forms confused with 
early ME. weste, < AS. westen = OS. wvsiuii = 
OHG. wuosti, MHG. wueste, G. wiiste, a waste, 
desert : see wa.'itc''-, a.] 1. A wild, uninhabited, 
or desolate place or region; a desert; a wilder- 
ness. 
The worUi's great waste, the ocean. 
Walter, To my Lord Protector. 
No other object breaks 
The waste but one dwarf tree. 
Shclleif, Julian and lladdiilo. 
A dreary waste, exhibiting scarcely a vestige of civiliza- 
tion. Prescott, Ferd. and l8,a., i. 
[The IJarbary States were) bounded . . . on the south by 
the vast, indefinite, sandy, flinty wastes of Sahara. 
Sumner, Orations, I. 205. 
Fancy flutters over these vague wastes like a butterlly 
blown out to sea, and finds no foothold. 
Lowell, Harviird Anniversary. 
2. Untilled or uncultivated ground; a tract of 
land not in a state of cultivation, and produ- 
cing little or no herbage or wood. 
One small gate that open'd on the wa^te. 
Tennysfyn, Enoch Arden. 
3. \n coal-miniiig,go\>; also, the fine coal made 
in mining and preparing coal for the market ; 
culm; coal-dirt; dirt: in the Pennsylvania an- 
thracite region, used to signify both the mine- 
waste (or coal left in the mine in pillars, etc.) 
and the breaker waste. — 4. Gradual loss, dimi- 
nution, ordecay.asinbulk, substance, strength, 
or value, from continued use, wear, disea.sc, 
etc. : as, waste of tissue ; wa.ste of energy. 
Beauty's waste hath in the world an end. 
Shak., Sonnets, ix. 
Were Life uniform in its rate, , . . repair and waste of 
all organs, including nervous orj-'ans, would have to keep 
an approximately even pace, one with the other. 
//. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., § 37. 
5. Consumption; decline; a jiiniiig away. 
There 's many a one as works in a carding-rooni who 
falls into a waste, cr»ughing and sjdtting blood, because 
they're just poisoned by the fluff. 
Mrs. Gasketl, North and South, xiii. 
6. Broken, spoiled, useless, or superfluous ma- 
terial ; stuff that is left over, or that is unfitted 
waste 
or cannot readily be utilized for the purpose 
for which it was intended ; overplus, useless, 
or rejected material; refuse, as the overflow 
water from a dam or reservoir, broken or 
spoiled castings in a foundry, paper scraps in 
a printing-office or bindery, or shreds of yarn 
in a cotton- or woolen-mill. 
What is called in typographical language the waste of 
works printed at the Academy is seldom or never pre- 
served, as it ought to be. 
Rev. W. Tooke (Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 430). 
"Idon't know howit is, sir,"saidoneif'asfc' collector, . . . 
"I can 't make it out, but paper gets scarcer or else I'm 
out of luck. Just at this time my family and me really 
couldn't live on my waste if we had to depend entirely 
upon it." 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 11. 
7. Rubbish ; trash ; nonsense. 
Why fader, in faith, are yo so fer tnmblet 
At his wordys of waste. & his wit febill? 
Destruction o/ Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2546. 
8. A weir or sluice for carrying off the over- 
flow from a dam, reservoir, or canal. — 9. A 
waste-pipe, or any contrivance for allowing 
waste matter or surplus water, steam, etc., to 
escape. 
If more than one l>asin is fixed upon the same waste, the 
size should be proportionately increased. 
S. S. llellyei; The Plumber, p. 47. 
10. Unnecessary or useless expenditure: as, 
waste of time, labor, or money. 
So to order and dispende the same that no waste or vn- 
profitable excesse be made. Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 227. 
Prefaces, and passages, and excusations, and other 
speeches of reference to the person, are great ivastes of 
time. Bacon, Dispatch (ed. 1887). 
11. A superfluity. 
We'll girt them with an ample waste of love. 
Marston, Antonio and Mellida, I., i. 1. 
12. In law, anything suffered by a tenant in 
the nature of permanent injury to the inheri- 
tance, not occasioned by the act of God or a 
public enemy ; the result of any act or omission 
by the tenant of a particular estate by which 
the estate of the remainder-man or reversioner 
is rendered less valuable Cotton waste. See cot- 
ton-waste.— 'EciMitable waste, injuries to the inheritance 
which fall short of waste as defined by the common law, 
but which a court of equity will treat as eiiuivalent to 
waste.— Impeachment of waste. See impeachment.— 
In wastet, in vain. 
leh bane wrongt al in wast ac i nel na more. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 718. 
Tliir wise wordis ware noght wroght in waste. 
To waffe and wende away als wynde. 
York Plays, p. 95. 
Permissive waste, waste by omission to prevent it.— 
Tanners' waste. See (a«ner>.— To run to waste, to 
become exhausted, useless, or spoiled, as from want of 
proper judgment, management, care, or skill ; become lost 
for any useful purpose. 
Alas ! our yooug affections run to waste. 
Or water but the desert. 
Byron, Childe Harold, iv. 120. 
Voluntary waste. See m/KH^ni)/.— Waste-picking 
machine, a machine forshredding waste fal)ric into shotv 
dy ; a rag-picker. — Waster waste. See the (inotation un- 
der waster^, n., 4 (6). =Syn. 6. Refuse, Damage, etc. See 
toss. 
waste! (wast), V. ; pret. and pp. wasted, ppr. 
wasting. [< ME. wasteii, waasteii, < OF. wa.<<ter, 
guaster, ga-^iter, F. gdtcr, waste (= Pr. gastar, 
guastar = Sp. Pg. gastar = It. gtiastare, < MHG. 
wrt-s'/oH, lay wast e),<L. i'n.s-/«rf, waste, devastate, 
< vastus, waste, desert: see wasted, a., and cf. 
rastatc, devastate. Cf. G. wiisten, lay waste.] 
1. trans. 1. To lay waste ; devastate; destroy; 
ruin. 
For-thi wijtli with werre i wasted alle hire londes, 
& brougt hire at swiche bale that sche mercy craned. 
William of Paterne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 4587. 
And at the Fote of this Hille wassomtymeagode Cytee 
of Cristene Men, that Men cleped Cayphas, For Cayphas 
first foinided it ; but it is now .Tile wasted. 
Mandevitte, Travels, p. 31. 
Bathy sent Cadan t« pursue the King into Sclauonia, 
still fleeing before him, who wasted Bosn.i, Seruia, and 
Bulgaria. Purchas, Pilgi-imiige, p. 405. 
He more wasted the Britains then any Saxon King be- 
fore him. Milton, Hist. Eng., iv, 
2. In law, to damage, injure, or impair, as an 
estate, voluntarily, or by allowing the build- 
ings, fences, etc., to fall into decay. — 3. To 
<liminisli or reduce in bulk, substance, strength, 
value, or the like, as by continued use, wear, 
loss, decay, or disease ; consume or wear away ; 
use up; siieiid. 
Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all ! 
Shak., S Hen. VI., iii. ■_>. 125. 
The span of time 
Doth waste us to our graves. 
Ford, Lover's Melancholy, iv. 3. 
My heart is wasted with my «oe. Tennyson, Oriana. 
