DISSIPATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Dissipate

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/dˈɪsəpˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

dissipate v. t. (past & past part. dissipated; pres. part. dissipating)

To scatter completely; to disperse and cause to disappear; used esp. of the dispersion of things that can never again be collected or restored. "Dissipated those foggy mists of error." "I soon dissipated his fears." "The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy."

To destroy by wasteful extravagance or lavish use; to squander. "The vast wealth... was in three years dissipated."

Synonyms: To disperse; scatter; dispel; spend; squander; waste; consume; lavish.

Dissipate v. i.

To separate into parts and disappear; to waste away; to scatter; to disperse; to vanish; as, a fog or cloud gradually dissipates before the rays or heat of the sun; the heat of a body dissipates.

To be extravagant, wasteful, or dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure; to engage in dissipation.

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Etymology of 'Dissipate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dissipate" Quotes from Famous Books

... to the colonel, I knew nothing of what was doing in the world. I therefore yearned to get back to Rio at the first opportunity, even at the cost of breaking with the vicar. And I may as well add—since I am here making a general confession—that having spent nothing of my wages, I was itching to dissipate them ...

— Brazilian Tales • Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

... warped all his best natures—due, as Judge Wright was compelled to confess, to the timely efforts of Colonel Boone, there sprang into the breast of Judge Wright an unquenchable flame of jealousy. What right had Colonel Boone to hold such an influence over this boy, the pampered and humored dissipate of this Congressman from Indiana, when his own commands, and his mother's prayers had held ...

— The Second William Penn - A true account of incidents that happened along the - old Santa Fe Trail • William H. Ryus

... he had it not in his power to revenge her. It was not long before the Count himself repented of the action, and his remorse became so great, that even the miserable Thibault endeavoured to mitigate it. At last it wore off, and he began to think a second marriage, and the hope of an heir, would dissipate his afflictions; and well knowing that his son-in-law would never engage himself again, he married, and was happy enough at the expiration of a year to have a son: yet his grief was not wholly vanished, his daughter came ever fresh into his memory, and the light of Thibault, who ...

— The Princess of Ponthieu - (in) The New-York Weekly Magazine or Miscellaneous Repository • Unknown

... of the Princess and yourself, which you had successfully contrived to dissipate, revived in the Doctor's mind when he heard the lady's reason for refusing to marry his royal master. It was now too late to regret that he had suffered himself to be misled by cleverly managed appearances. ...

— Little Novels • Wilkie Collins

... thoughts rendered this a tedious process, as she would from time to time stop in the middle of an action and fall into an attitude of rapt abstraction, with far-off eyes and rigid mouth. When she had at last succeeded in kindling a fire and raising a film of pale blue smoke, that seemed to fade and dissipate entirely before it reached the top of the chimney shaft, she crouched beside it, fixed her eyes on the darkest corner of ...

— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

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