subs. (once literary: now colloquial).—1. A prodigal, a spendthrift; also WASTREL, WASTE-GOOD, WASTE-THRIFT. Also 2 (modern) = a generic form of contempt, a ne’er-do-well, BAD-EGG (q.v.), ROTTER (q.v.); ‘a useless, clumsy, or ill-made person’ (HOTTEN). WASTREL (q.v.) (modern) = a neglected child, street-ARAB.
1383. CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Merchant’s Tale,’ 231. A cludestere or WASTOUR of thy good.
1534. UDALL, Roister Doister, i. 1.
| Sometime Lewis Loiterer biddeth us come near; | |
| Somewhiles Watkin WASTER maketh us good cheer. |
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell, 18. A young … cockney, that … have playde the WASTE-GOOD at the Innes of the Court.
1592. GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier [Harleian Miscellany, V. 420]. This first … is a WAST-GOOD and an unthrift.
1608. MIDDLETON, A Trick to Catch the Old One, ii. 1. A WASTETHRIFT, a common surfeiter, and, to conclude, a beggar.
1611. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 3. Thou art a WASTETHRIFT, and art run away.
1611. Bible, ‘Authorised Version,’ Prov. xviii. 9. He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great WASTER.
1619. HOLLAND, Plutarch, 36. If Lucullus were not a WASTER and a delicate given to belly-cheare.
d. 1697. AUBREY, Lives, ‘John Popham.’ He left a vast estate to his son Sr Francis (I think ten thousand pounds per annum), he lived like a hog, but his son John was a great WASTER.
1818. SCOTT, The Heart of Mid-lothian, xxviii. Ye will think I am turned WASTER for I wear clean hose and shoon every day.
1877. HUXLEY, Technical Education [Century]. The veriest waifs and WASTRELS of society.
1886. Daily Telegraph, 20 March. Sending out not WASTRELS, paupers, and ne’er-do-wells, but capable mechanics and labourers, to Australia.
3. (old).—A lawless thieving vagabond.
1342. Statue Edward III., an. reg. 5, c. xiv. Divers manslaughters, felonies, and robberies done by people that he called Roberdsmen, WASTOURS, and Drawbacches.
4. (common).—An imperfection in the wick of a candle, causing it to gutter or ‘waste’: also THIEF (q.v.): cf. sense 3, supra.
5. (old).—A cudgel: spec. a wooden sword used for practice.
1593. CHURCHYARD, Challenge, 84. And sodainely a stout taule lobber will lay downe the WASTER, and yeelde to him that hath more practise.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, 95. WASTERS or cudgels used in fence-schooles.
1598. J. STOW, Survey of London, 70. The youthes of this citie also have used on holy dayes after evening prayer, at their maysters dores, to exercise their WASTERS and bucklers.
1602. DEKKER, 2 The Honest Whore, iii. 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), iii. 410].
| If o’r husbands their wives will needs be masters, | |
| We men will have a law to win’t at WASTERS. |
1608. HARINGTON, Brief View of the Church, 22. With a good WASTER he so mortified this old Adam of his son-in-law squire that he needed no other penance than this.
| Ibid., Epigrams, i. 16. | |
| A man and wife strove erst who should be masters, | |
| And having chang’d between the household speeches, | |
| The man in wrath brought forth a pair of WASTERS, | |
| And swore that these should prove who wore the breeches. |
1619. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, Philaster, iv. Thou wouldst be loth to play half a dozen of venies at WASTERS, with a good fellow, for a broken head.
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 348. Or as they that play at WASTERS exercise themselves by a few cudgells to avoid an enemies blows.
[?]. Mad Men of Gotham, xiv. The one took a WASTER in his hand, and did give him a dozen stripes, saying at every blow, Here, sirrah, take this for a reward, and hereafter mock us no more.
d. 1655. T. ADAMS, Works, I. 42. As with wooden WASTERS men learn to play at the sharp, so practice in times of peace makes ready for the time of war.
6. (common).—A damaged manufactured article: also WASTREL.
1863. G. EDE [F. CAMPIN, A Practical Treatise on Mechanical Engineering, 355. Had I not taken these precautions, which some are apt to think too much trouble, I should have had many a WASTER.
7. See WAISTER.
