Wastrel

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪstɹəl/

Definitions

1. A person who squanders resources, money, or opportunities through reckless or irresponsible behavior
2. A dissolute individual who carelessly dissipates wealth, time, and potential through frivolous excess and lack of discipline
3. Someone characterized by profligate spending and negligent disregard for valuable resources or opportunities

Etymology: The word "wastrel" first appears in print in 1847, a fairly late arrival for a term that now sounds so old-fashioned. It is built from "waste" with the pejorative suffix "-rel", a pattern that also gives us words like "drivel" and "shrivel" in the sense of something dwindling or worthless. The suffix carries a faint contempt, so the word has always meant more than someone who spends carelessly: it names a person who squanders what they have and is judged for it. The core idea is the same as the verb "waste", which in its older English sense meant to lay something desolate or to let it go to ruin. A wastrel is therefore someone who lets resources, and often their own prospects, decline into nothing. The emphasis falls on moral failure rather than mere extravagance, which is why the word still sounds like a rebuke.

Synonyms: profligate, spendthrift, squanderer, idler, loafer

Antonyms: saver, thrifty person, economizer, penny pincher, miser