lay waste

transitive verb wasted, wasting

1. to destroy; devastate; ruin
2. to wear away; consume gradually; use up
3. to make weak, feeble, or emaciated; wear away the strength, vigor, or life of: a man wasted by age and disease
4. to use up or spend without real need, gain, or purpose; squander
5. to fail to take proper advantage of: to waste an opportunity
6. ☆ Slang to kill, usually with violence; esp., to murder

intransitive verb

1. to lose strength, health, vigor, flesh, etc., as by disease; become weak or enfeebled: often with away
2. to be used up or worn down gradually; become smaller or fewer by gradual loss
3. Now Rare to pass or be spent: said of time
4. to be wasted, or not put to full or proper use

adjective

1. uncultivated or uninhabited; wild; barren; desolate
2. left over, superfluous, refuse, or no longer of use: a waste product
3. produced in excess of what is or can be used: waste energy
4. excreted from the body as useless or superfluous material: said as of feces or urine
5. used to carry off or hold waste or refuse: a waste pipe, wastebasket

noun

1. uncultivated or uninhabited land, as a desert or wilderness
2. 1. a desolate, uncultivated, or devastated stretch, tract, or area
   2. a vast expanse, as of the sea
3. a wasting or being wasted; specif.,
   1. a useless or profitless spending or consuming; squandering, as of money or time
   2. a failure to take advantage (of something)
   3. a gradual loss, decrease, or destruction by use, wear, decay, deterioration, etc.
4. useless, superfluous, or discarded material, as ashes, garbage or sewage
5. matter excreted from the body, as feces or urine
6. cotton fiber or yarn left over from the process of milling, used for wiping machinery, packing bearings, etc.
7. Obsolete ruin or devastation, as by war or fire
8. Physical Geog. material derived by land erosion or disintegration of rock, and carried to the sea by rivers and streams