I. ˈwāstrəl sometimes ˈwäs- noun
( -s )
Etymology: waste (II) + -rel (as in scoundrel )
1. dialect England : a piece of waste land beside a road
2.
a. : something rejected or discarded as useless or imperfect
wastrels from the workshops of neolithic peoples — A.H.Keane
in the first thinning only the wastrels and dead trees are removed — John Simpson
b. : an emaciated and unhealthy animal
3.
a. : good-for-nothing , profligate
was regarded as essentially a wastrel and, given the opportunity, a Grade A guttersnipe — Stanley Walker
b. : vagabond , waif
the girlish wastrel who had drifted into the house — Harper's
4. : one that wastes : spendthrift , waster
a spendthrift and wastrel of the world's stored energy — W.P.Webb
II. adjective
1. : rejected as defective : worthless
2. : wasting or going to waste : spendthrift
the end of his now wastrel ways — Maristan Chapman