WASTING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wasting mean? 

• WASTING (noun)
  The noun WASTING has 2 senses:

1. any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease

2. a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse

  Familiarity information: WASTING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WASTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

cachexia; cachexy; wasting

Hypernyms ("wasting" is a kind of...):

debility; feebleness; frailness; frailty; infirmity; valetudinarianism (the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age))

Derivation:

waste (cause to grow thin or weak)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

atrophy; wasting; wasting away

Hypernyms ("wasting" is a kind of...):

symptom ((medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wasting"):

amyotrophia; amyotrophy (progressive wasting of muscle tissues)

tabes (wasting of the body during a chronic disease)

kraurosis (atrophy and shriveling of the skin or mucous membrane)

 Context examples 

“Don't YOU see a wasting and a wearing in him, Miss Wickfield?” inquired Mrs. Heep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

With more development, these might be tested in clinical studies to treat muscle wasting.

(Controlling Muscle Repair, NIH)

Muscle wasting decreases strength and the ability to move.

(Muscle Atrophy, NCI Dictionary)

This agent may also inhibit the calcium-dependent calpain system, resulting in the inhibition of muscle wasting.

(Formoterol Fumarate Oral, NCI Thesaurus)

Similarly, when ATP is abundant, phosphofructokinase will be inhibited to prevent wasting glucose on making energy when it is not needed.

(Glycolysis Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

It occurs in immunocompromised patients, causing diarrhea and wasting.

(Microsporidiosis, NCI Thesaurus)

There are several types including simple virilizing forms (adrenogenital syndrome), salt-wasting forms, and virilizing hypertension forms depending on the enzyme of defects.

(Congenital Adrenal Gland Hyperplasia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Synthetic derivatives of the male hormone, androgen, that promote tissue growth by increasing the metabolic processes involved with protein synthesis and are used to promote weight gain in wasting diseases.

(Anabolic steroid, NCI Thesaurus)

A substance that has been studied as a treatment for cancer and as a treatment for cachexia (body wasting) associated with advanced cancer.

(Hydrazine sulfate, NCI Dictionary)