waste time

English

Verb

waste time (third-person singular simple present wastes time, present participle wasting time, simple past and past participle wasted time)

1. To allow time to elapse in an unproductive manner.
   • 1973, “Sad Song”, in Berlin, performed by Lou Reed:

     I'm gonna stop wastin' my time / Somebody else would have broken both of her arms

   • 2006, Matt Bellamy (lyrics and music), “Knights of Cydonia”, in Black Holes and Revelations, performed by Muse:

     Don't waste your time or time will waste you.

   • 2025 February 5, Richard Wilcock, “GBR searches for answers to ticketing simplification”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 26:

     Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has wasted no time.

Synonyms

• dally; dawdle; dick around (American, vulgar), fiddlefart, fiddlefuck; faff about, fanny about, fiddle about, fritter, fuck around (vulgar), goof off, piddle around, about, or away (British, idiomatic); piss away, about, or around (vulgar); slack off, screw around

Derived terms

• there's no time to waste
• time-waster
• time-wasting
• waste of time

Translations

allow time to elapse in an unproductive manner

• Arabic: ضَيَّعَ اَلْوَقْت (ḍayyaʕa al-waqt)
• Armenian: ժամանակ վատնել (žamanak vatnel)
• Catalan: perdre temps (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 嘥時間 / 嘥时间 (saai¹ si⁴ gaan³)

  Hokkien: 無了時 / 无了时 (zh) (bô-liáu-sî)

  Mandarin: 浪費時間 / 浪费时间 (làngfèi shíjiān), 白費時間 / 白费时间 (báifèi shíjiān)

• Czech: plýtvat časem, mrhat časem
• Dutch: tijd verspillen
• Finnish: hukata aikaa, haaskata aikaa
• French: perdre son temps (fr)
• Galician: enredar, perder o tempo
• German: Zeit vergeuden
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: perdere tempo, sprecare tempo
• Japanese: 時間を無駄に過ごす (じかんをむだにすごす, jikan o muda ni sugosu)
• Korean: 시간을 소비하다 (siganeul sobihada)
• Lao: ເສຍເວລາ (sīa wē lā)
• Lithuanian: švaistyti laiką, temptį gumą, temptį laiką
• Maori: ānewanewa
• Polish: tracić czas impf, stracić czas pf, bałwanić się impf
• Portuguese: perder tempo
• Romanian: pierde timpul, freca menta, tăia frunză la câini, irosi timpul
• Russian: теря́ть вре́мя impf (terjátʹ vrémja)
• Shan: သုမ်းၶၢဝ်းယၢမ်း (súm kháao yáam)
• Spanish: perder el tiempo (es), perecear (es), pelar la pava (es) (Spain, colloquial), estar al pedo (Argentina, Uruguay, colloquial), desperdiciar tiempo, holgazanear (es), haraganear (es)
• Swedish: spilla tid, ödsla tid, förspilla tid
• Thai: เสียเวลา (th) (sǐia-wee-laa)
• Turkish: zaman öldürmek (tr), vakit geçirmek (tr), vakit öldürmek (tr), zaman geçirmek
• Ukrainian: га́яти час impf (hájaty čas), марнува́ти час impf (marnuváty čas)
• Vietnamese: tốn thì giờ (chẳng ra gì)

Anagrams

• time-waste