wasteful

From Middle English wastful; equivalent to waste +‎ -ful.

• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪstfəl/

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• Rhymes: -eɪstfəl

wasteful (comparative more wasteful, superlative most wasteful)

1. Inclined to waste or squander money or resources.
   • 2023 March 8, 'Industry Insider', “The Beeching legacy”, in RAIL, number 978, page 68:

     As a narrative, competition of the type seen between the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) was seen as wasteful, with duplicate routes reflecting an unnecessary use of resources.

1. Synonyms: prodigal, profligate

   Antonym: unwasteful

2. (obsolete) Uninhabited, desolate.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17, page 482:

     Shortly vnto the vvaſtefull vvoods ſhe came, / VVhereas ſhe found the Goddeſſe vvith her crevv, […]

• awfulest, sweatful