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To crumble into small particles; to turn to dust by natural decay; to lose form, or waste away, by a gradual separation of the component particles, without the presence of water; to crumble away. The moldering of earth in frosts and sun. Bacon. When statues molder, and when arches fall. Prior. If he had sat still, the…

An extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath. In her girlish age she kept sheep on the moor. Carew.

Anything which gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing. Moth blight (Zoöl.), any plant louse of the genus Aleurodes, and related genera. They are injurious to various plants. -- Moth gnat (Zoöl.), a dipterous insect of the genus Bychoda, having fringed wings. -- Moth hunter (Zoöl.), the goats…

To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. [R.] They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it. Hazlitt.

A short or waste piece or knot of wool separated from the longer staple by combing; also, a similar piece or shred of waste silk.

Waste and knots of wool removed by the comb; combings.

To feed and cause to grow; to supply with matter which increases bulk or supplies waste, and promotes health; to furnish with nutriment. He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Is. xliv. 14.

That which nourishes; anything which promotes growth and repairs the natural waste of animal or vegetable life; food; aliment. The stomach returns what it has received, in strength and nutriment diffused into all parts of the body. South.

A fertile or green spot in a waste or desert, esp. in a sandy desert.

hemselves the whole of religion as consisting in a few easy observances. Rogers. O I that wasted time to tend upon her, To compass her with sweet observances! Tennyson.

The rejected or waste parts of a butchered animal.

The waste which overlies good stone in a quarry. Raymond.

To trifle with; to waste; to squander in paltry ways or on worthless things. [Obs.] "Palter out your time in the penal statutes." Beau. & Fl.

eclaration and payment of a dividend at the time when due. -- To pass away, to spend; to waste. "Lest she pass away the flower of her age." Ecclus. xlii. 9. -- To pass by. (a) To disregard; to neglect. (b) To excuse; to spare; to overlook. -- To pass off, to impose fraudulently; to palm off. "Passed himself off as a…

o be destroyed; to pass away; to become nothing; to be lost; to die; hence, to wither; to waste away. I perish with hunger! Luke xv. 17. Grow up and perish, as the summer fly. Milton. The thoughts of a soul that perish in thinking. Locke.

To strip of money or goods by open violence; to plunder; to spoil; to lay waste; as, to pillage the camp of an enemy. Mummius . . . took, pillaged, and burnt their city. Arbuthnot.

To languish with desire; to waste away with longing for something; -- usually followed by for. For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. Shak.

Waste matter from the preparation of skins, consisting of hair, lime, oil, etc.

for food by violence; to seize and devour. Shak. (c) To wear away gradually; to cause to waste or pine away; as, the trouble preyed upon his mind. Addison.

One who, or that which, preys; a plunderer; a waster; a devourer. Hooker.