squander

== English == === Etymology === Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown origin. Perhaps a blend of scatter +‎ wander. Compare Danish skvætte (rare)/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette. === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ˈskwɒnd.ə/, [ˈskwɒn.də] (US) IPA(key): /ˈskwɑn.dɚ/, [ˈskʷɑn.dɚ] Rhymes: -ɒndə(ɹ) === Verb === squander (third-person singular simple present squanders, present participle squandering, simple past and past participle squandered) (transitive) To waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate. Synonyms: waste, lavish, splurge, slather, throw away, make ducks and drakes of, play ducks and drakes with, blow. 1886, Cora Pearl, Memoirs. "I have squandered money enormously.... I ought to have saved, but saving is not easy in such a whirl of excitement as that in which I have lived." 1746, Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. (obsolete, transitive) To scatter; to disperse. (obsolete, transitive) To wander at random; to scatter. ==== Usage notes ==== Squander implies starting with many resources, such as great wealth, and then wasting them (using them up to little purpose or little effect), often ending with little. Particularly used in phrases such as squander an opportunity or squander an inheritance. It may be used even if one starts with little, though usually in some construction such as squander what little he had. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === References === === Anagrams === quanders