Wastrel

//ˈweɪstɹəl// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who is profligate, who wastes time or resources extravagantly. countable, dated

    "And so with one thing and other the auld witch raised the fiends of jealousy in that innocent heart. She would cry out that Heriotside was an ill-doing wastrel, and had no business to come and flatter honest lassies."

  2. 2
    someone who dissipates resources self-indulgently wordnet
  3. 3
    A neglected child. countable, obsolete
  4. 4
    Refuse; rubbish. obsolete, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
arabbad lotbeach bumbeachcomberbeggarbeggarly fellow

Antonyms

All antonyms
miser

Example

More examples

"And so with one thing and other the auld witch raised the fiends of jealousy in that innocent heart. She would cry out that Heriotside was an ill-doing wastrel, and had no business to come and flatter honest lassies."

Etymology

1847, waste + -rel (pejorative).

More for "wastrel"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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