Dissipate

//ˈdɪsɪpeɪt// adj, verb, slang

adj, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To drive away, disperse. transitive

    "August 1773, James Cook, journal entry I soon dissipated his fears."

  2. 2
    spend frivolously and unwisely wordnet
  3. 3
    To use up or waste; squander. transitive

    "The vast wealth […] was in three years dissipated."

  4. 4
    move away from each other wordnet
  5. 5
    To vanish by dispersion. intransitive
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    to cause to separate and go in different directions wordnet
  2. 7
    To cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.

    "The traction motors serve as generators when dynamic braking is used, the generated output being dissipated in fan-cooled resistance banks mounted in a removable roof section."

  3. 8
    live a life of pleasure, especially with respect to alcoholic consumption wordnet
  4. 9
    To be dissolute in conduct. colloquial, dated, intransitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    dissipated obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
disperseablateattenuatebe consumedbe gonebe promiscuous

Example

More examples

"The fog started to dissipate about ten o'clock."

Etymology

The verb is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the adjective from 1606 to 1765; from Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipātus, perfect passive participle of dissipō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), also written dissupō (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supō (“to throw”). Doublet of dissipe (“to dissipate”), now obsolete.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.