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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Dissipate

Dis'si-pāte, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. DISSIPATED; p. pr. & vb. n. DISSIPATING.] [Lat. dissipare, dissipatum, from prefix dis and an obsolete verb sipare, supare, to throw; It. dissipare, Sp. disipar, Pr. & Pg. dissipar, Fr. dissiper.]

Sense 1. To cause to go apart and disappear; to scatter; to disperse; to drive asunder; — used appropriately of the dispersion of things that can never again be collected or restored.

“Dissipated those foggy mists of error.” Selden.

The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy. Hazlitt.

Sense 2. To destroy by wasteful extravagance; to consume; to squander.

The vast wealth . . . was in three years dissipated. Burnet.

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

Dis'si-pāte, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. 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; the fluids dissipate. 2. To be extravagant, wasteful, or dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure; to be viciously idle and luxurious.