wasty

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪsti/
• Rhymes: -eɪsti

Etymology 1

From Middle English wasti, westy, westi, westiȝ (“desolate, deserted; destitute”), from Old English wēstiġ (“wasty, desert, desolate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōstīg (“waste-like, deserted”), equivalent to waste +‎ -y. Cognate with Scots wasty, waisty (“desolate, deserted; unoccupied”), Dutch woestig (“inhospitable, rugged, wild”), German Low German wööstig (“desolate”).

Adjective

wasty (comparative wastier or more wasty, superlative wastiest or most wasty)

1. Resembling a waste or wasteland; desert; (by extension) deserted, desolate.
   • 1885, The Sunday Magazine, volume 14, page 199:

     But, happily, we meet with circumstances that break in upon this routine and monotony, and we thank God, as Mungo Park did, when the moss peeped up at him from the wasty desert.

   • 1912, Reinhold Conrad Muschler, A Manual Flora of Egypt, volume 2, page 1068:

     Frequent on wasty places and in the desert.

   • 1922, The International Interpreter: The International News Weekly, page 658:

     These boundaries were a long way down into the desert, below a corner of that fearful wasty wild known as the Great Erg.

   • 2009, George B. Bookman, Headlines, Deadlines and Lifelines, page 297:

     It is formed of glacial rock in all sorts of shapes and sizes and gives a wasty, desert appearance.

   • 2013, Alex Shoumatoff, Legends of the American Desert:

     A red-tailed hawk swooped down into a stand of prickly pears in a “wasty” moonscape.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wasty (“extravagantly or wastefully expensive”), equivalent to waste +‎ -y.

Adjective

wasty (comparative wastier, superlative wastiest)

1. Containing or yielding much waste.
2. (of produce) Deteriorating, wasting away.
   • 1924, The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria:

     This fruit was well packed and nicely graded, but unfortunately a wasty condition prevented satisfactory prices being obtained.

3. (of livestock) Obese; excessively fat.

   Synonym of overfinished.

   • 1906, The Illinois Agriculturist, volume 11, page 239:

     Then, too, the market demand is not so much for the extreme early maturing, excessive fat type, but it is for a trimmer, “less wasty” hog.

   • 1958, John M. Kays, Basic animal husbandry, page 269:

     A trim-middled hog will have a higher dressing percentage than a wasty, gutty, paunchy, heavy-middled hog.

   • 1999, J. S. Pruthi, Quick Freezing Preservation of Foods: Foods of animal origin:

     Young animals are angular and slightly thin-fleshed; mature animals are slightly thick-fleshed, but irregular in contour. Fat covering varies from thin in young animals to moderately thick in mature animals and may be patchy or wasty.

4. (US) Resembling cotton-waste (the leftover cotton fibers from manufacturing and post-consumer sources that can be recycled into new products).
5. (dated) Wasteful.

Anagrams

• Wayts