Dissipate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/

Origin

From Latin dissipatus, past participle of dissipare, also written dissupare ("to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate"), from dis- ("apart") + supare ("to throw"), also in comp. insipare ("to throw into").

Full definition of dissipate

Verb

1. To drive away, disperse.
• CookI soon dissipated his fears.
• HazlittThe extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy.
2. To use up or waste.
• Bishop BurnetThe vast wealth ... was in three years dissipated.
• 1931: F. Scott Fitzgerald,So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.
3. To vanish by dispersion.

Related terms

• dissipation