| 释义 |
▪ I. wasting, vbl. n.|ˈweɪstɪŋ|
[f. waste v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of laying waste; devastation.
a1300Cursor M. 27839 [Covetousness causes] manslaghter and suik, wasting and were. 1543–4Act 35 Hen. VIII c. 12 The same Scottes..make..burnynges murders wastinges and depopulations in this his realme. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. II. 83 Except he had left taknes quhair he had beine in Robrie, Spoylzie, and Waisting of the kirkes. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. iii. (1674) 4 The miserable wasting of their Country..in..Civil Wars. 1756Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. 30 The Horrors that attend the Wasting of Kingdoms, and Sacking of Cities. 1864Swinburne Atalanta 164 For wasting of the boar That mars with tooth and tusk and fiery feet Green pasturage [etc.]..I praise her not.
2. The action of using or spending lavishly or to no profit. † Also concr., that which is thus wasted.
a1300Cursor M. 23850 Ai to spell and noght to spede, wasting it es o godds sede. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 25 He bad wastoure go worche what he best couthe, And wynnen his wastyng with somme manere crafte. 1523in Acc. Fam. Innes (1864) 97 His friends tak him and put him in fermance for eschewin of ony forther waisting of his saidis landis and gudis. 1867Pusey Eleven Addr. iii. (1908) 24 He foresaw Adam's wasting of His grace.
3. Gradual diminution or decrease; gradual wear or loss.
a1425tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 73 Boile þam togidre to þe wastyng of þe iuysez. 1509in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bp.'s Stortford (1882) 31 Item ressived ffor wastyng of torchis when that jenyns wyfe was beryed and at her monthe mynde, ijd. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. viii. xxvi, His clothes all patcht with more then honest thrift, And clouted shoon were nail'd for fear of wasting. 1686tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 416 Two strong dams..to prevent the water from wasting. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 87 To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose. 1883D. C. Murray Hearts xvii, When he remembered how friendly everybody was in his new world, he forgot the rapid wasting of his little fortune.
4. Gradual decay of life or organic tissue; gradual loss of strength and vitality; consumption, atrophy.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lvii. (1495) 174 The bones somtyme ben greuyd of wastynge of humours of the marow. 1538Elyot Dict., Tabo, a consumption, wastynge, or putrifaction of thinges. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 81 b, So that if he shaketh him not off betimes by suche wasting of bloud as he will make, thereby he is quickly enfeebled. 1628A. Leighton Appeal to Parlt. 143 The groning of the brute and sencelesse creatures amongst us, under murreings and wastings. 1671Milton P.R. ii. 256 Though hunger still remain: so it remain Without this bodies wasting, I content me. 1808Jamieson, Wasting, a consumption, a decline. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex., Analosis..a consumption, wasting, or atrophy. 1893Daily News 9 Jan. 3/4 A baby who is rapidly recovering from ‘wasting’, a very general malady among the little ones of the poor. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 229 Wasting of the levator palati and of the vocal cord muscles cannot actually be seen.
b. Sport. Reduction of weight by ‘training down’.
1856H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock xii. 207 With medicine and vigorous wasting, they can come to their weight again..in three weeks. 1913Gretton Mod. Hist. Eng. People I. viii. 191 His suicide was attributed to depression of spirits caused by the incessant ‘wasting’ to keep down his weight.
5. Mining. (See quots.)
1831J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 39 The first operation to which the iron ore is subjected, is wasting; that is exposing the stones to a moderate heat, which volatilises any extraneous mixture of the ores. 1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 70 Wastings, workings.
▪ II. ˈwasting, ppl. a.
[f. waste v. + -ing2.]
1. a. That lays waste, devastates, or destroys.
c1230Hali Meid. 43 And te oðre..liueð i godes luue, wiðuten euch heate of þe hali gast, þat bearneð se lihte, wiðute wastinde brune in alle hise icorene. 1535Coverdale Dan. viii. 13 The waistinge abhominacion. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 46 And see the Cities and the Townes defac't, By wasting Ruine of the cruell Foe. a1646J. Burroughes Exp. Hosea iii. (1652) 190 Sin is of a wasting nature: Sin layeth wast Countreyes and places that people live in. 1707Rowe Success H.M.'s Arms 14 The dreadful Ravage of the wasting War. 1738Wesley Hymn, ‘To Thee, O Lord, our God and King’ ii, Whate'er is human ebbs and flows As wasting Time prevails. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. i, Here thy temple was, And is, despite of war and wasting fire. 1808Scott Marm. ii. x, The wasting sea-breeze keen Had worn the pillar's carving quaint. 1889J. B. Bury Later Rom. Emp. ii. i. I. 66 Stilicho..departed to Salona, allowing Alaric to proceed on his wasting way into the lands of Hellas.
b. That undermines strength and vitality. Of a disease: Causing atrophy or gradual decay.
a1600Sir J. Davies Epigr. xxxvi. 21 The wasting Hectique, and the Quartain Feuer. a1721Prior 24 Songs iii. 4 A lingering fever's wasting pain. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xi, A haggard paleness, which seemed the effect of care or of dissipation, or of both these wasting causes combined. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Shops & Tenants, A slow, wasting consumption prevented the eldest girl from continuing her exertions. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. ii. xxi. III. 384 The state of his own health, too infirm to encounter, with safety, the wasting heats of an African summer. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 564 Wasting diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and phthisis.
2. a. That is being gradually consumed or destroyed; decaying, waning, passing away.
1340–70Alex. & Dind. 980 In þis wastinge word we ne wone nouht euere. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI. ii. v. 8 These Eyes, like Lampes, whose wasting Oyle is spent, Waxe dimme. 1665Hooke Microgr. Pref. e 2 The other Mandril..has an even neck instead of a taper one, and runs in a Collar, that by the help of a Screw, and a joynt made like M in the Figure, it can be still adjustned to the wearing or wasting neck. 1697Dryden æneis ii. 11 And now the latter Watch of wasting Night, And setting Stars, to kindly Rest invite. 1738Wesley Hymn, ‘Thee we adore, Eternal Name’ ii, Our wasting Lives grow shorter still As Months and Days increase. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 272 The wasting cliff at Pakefield. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 889 For the wasting muscles massage and electrical treatment should be employed.
b. Sport. (See waste v. 11 c.)
1880W. Day Racehorse in Training xvii. 166 It was once no uncommon sight at Newmarket to see, daily, ten or a dozen wasting jockeys returning from an eight-mile walk, thoroughly exhausted.
c. wasting asset (see quot. 1974).
1930Economist 26 Apr. 951/2 Dividends to shareholders—representing return of capital, since gold mines are a wasting asset—have shown much less than a corresponding rate of increase. 1953Times 31 Oct. 2/7 The cost will be almost competitive with coal-based electrical power, and it would be contrary to all experience if the cost comparison did not turn steadily in nuclear energy's favour, particularly when coal is a wasting asset and steadily more costly in real terms to extract. 1970Guardian 3 Nov., Dr. Beeching breathed his kiss of death on the Inverness to Kyle [railway line] in 1963; since then it has been regarded as a wasting asset. 1974Terminol. Managem. & Financial Accountancy (Inst. Cost & Managem. Accountants) 65 Wasting assets, assets of a fixed nature which are gradually consumed or exhausted in the process of earning income (e.g. mines or quarries).
Hence ˈwastingly adv.
1552Huloet, Wastinglye, or wastfullye, prodige. a1637B. Jonson Discov. (1640) 123 Not to cause the trouble of making Breviates by writing too riotous, and wastingly. 1834H. Taylor Artevelde i. iii. v. 164 No poison works so wastingly amongst them As a low diet..yea, it brings them down. a1853Wardlaw Lect. Jas. (1869) 241 Thus consuming, and wastingly, and wantonly, and wickedly, abusing the divine bounty. |