ˈwāstfəl adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from waste (I) + -ful
1. archaic : serving to lay waste : causing devastation : destructive
when wasteful war shall statues overturn — Shakespeare
2.
a. : expending or tending to expend something valuable in a useless or extravagant manner : given to or marked by waste : lavish , prodigal
incompetent, wasteful , and corrupt … squandered money in bucketfuls — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
in the same wasteful spirit, they had cooked … three times more than we could eat — R.L.Stevenson
b. : causing needless loss or expenditure — used with of
a defective boiler that is wasteful of fuel
c. archaic : causing loss of bodily strength or weight
lacking the burthen of lean and wasteful learnings — Shakespeare
3. archaic : desolate , uninhabited
in wilderness and wasteful deserts strayed — Edmund Spenser
• waste·ful·ly -fəlē, -li adverb
• waste·ful·ness noun -es