[dis.si.pate] vb -pat.ed ; -pat.ing [L dissipatus, pp. of dissipare, dissupare, fr. dis- + supare to throw] vt (15c) 1 a: to break up and drive off (as a crowd) b: to cause to spread thin or scatter and gradually vanish "one's sympathy is eventually dissipated --Andrew Feinberg" c: to lose (as heat or electricity) irrecoverably
2: to spend or use up wastefully or foolishly "lifelong tendency to ~ his gifts in travel and pleasure --Edmund Morris" "his fortune is dissipated in imprudent political adventures --John Butt" ~ vi 1: to break up and scatter or vanish
2: to be extravagant or dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure; esp: to drink to excess syn see scatter -- dis.si.pat.er n