1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) v. lvii. 174 The bones somtyme ben greuyd of wastynge of humours of the marow.

1538 T. Elyot Dict. Tabo, a consumption, wastynge, or putrifaction of thinges.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 81^v So that if he shaketh him not off betimes by suche wasting of bloud as he will make, thereby he is quickly enfeebled.

1628 A. Leighton Appeal to Parl. 143 The groning of the brute and sencelesse creatures amongst us, under murreings and wastings.

1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 256 Though hunger still remain: so it remain Without this bodies wasting, I content me. View more context for this quotation

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Wasting, a consumption, a decline.

1860 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. Analosis..a consumption, wasting, or atrophy.

1893 Daily News 9 Jan. 3/4 A baby who is rapidly recovering from ‘wasting’, a very general malady among the little ones of the poor.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 229 Wasting of the levator palati and of the vocal cord muscles cannot actually be seen.

1856 ‘The Druid’ Post & Paddock xii. 207 With medicine and vigorous wasting, they can come to their weight again..in three weeks.

1913 R. H. Gretton 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.

c1230 Hali 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.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Dan. viii. B The waistinge abhominacion.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) iii. vii. 46 And see the Cities and the Townes defac't, By wasting Ruine of the cruell Foe. View more context for this quotation

a1646 J. Burroughes Expos. Hosea (1652) iii. 190 Sin is of a wasting nature: Sin layeth wast Countreyes and places that people live in.

1707 N. Rowe Poem Late Successes Her Majesty's Arms 14 The dreadful Ravage of the wasting War.

1744 J. Wesley & C. Wesley Coll. Psalms & Hymns (new ed.) i. 58 Whate'er is human ebbs and flows As wasting Time prevails.

1808 W. Scott Marmion ii. x. 88 The wasting sea-breeze keen Had worn the pillar's carving quaint.

1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. i. 61 Here thy temple was, And is, despite of war and wasting fire.

1889 J. B. Bury Hist. Later Rom. Emp. I. ii. i. 66 Stilicho..departed to Salona, allowing Alaric to proceed on his wasting way into the lands of Hellas.

a1600 J. Davies Epigr. xxxvi. 21 The wasting Hectique, and the Quartain Feuer.

a1721 M. Prior 24 Songs iii. 4 A lingering fever's wasting pain.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth xi, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 281 A haggard paleness, which seemed the effect of care or of dissipation, or of both these wasting causes combined.

1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 94 A slow, wasting consumption, prevented the eldest girl from continuing her exertions.

1838 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Ferdinand & Isabella III. ii. xxi. 310 The state of his own health, too infirm to encounter, with safety, the wasting heats of an African summer.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 564 Wasting diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and phthisis.

1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 980 In þis wastinge word we ne wone nouht euere.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) ii. v. 8 These Eyes, like Lampes, whose wasting Oyle is spent, Waxe dimme. View more context for this quotation

1665 R. Hooke Micrographia Pref. sig. E2 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.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 234 And now the latter Watch of wasting Night, And setting Stars to kindly Rest invite.

1744 I. Watts Hymns & Spiritual Songs ii. 128 Our wasting Lives grow shorter still As Months and Days increase.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 272 The wasting cliff at Pakefield.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 889 For the wasting muscles massage and electrical treatment should be employed.

1880 W. 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.

1930 Economist 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.

1953 Times 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.

1970 Guardian 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.

1974 Terminol. 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).