FreeScrabbleDictionary

squander

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
18
Words With Friends
20
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/ˈskwɒnd.ə/(UK)
See all 4 pronunciations
/ˈskwɒnd.ə/(UK) · [ˈskwɒn.də](UK) · /ˈskwɑn.dɚ/(US) · [ˈskʷɑn.dɚ](US)

Definition of squander

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (transitive)To waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate.
    “.”
    “1886, Cora Pearl, Memoirs. "I have squandered money enormously.... I ought to have saved, but saving is not easy in such a whirl of excitement as that in which I have lived."”
    “1746, Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.”
    “As the game opened up, Bolton squandered a fine opportunity to equalise - Chris Eagles shooting straight at Szczesny - but then back came Arsenal.”
See all 3 definitions

verb

  1. (transitive)To waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate.
    “.”
    “1886, Cora Pearl, Memoirs. "I have squandered money enormously.... I ought to have saved, but saving is not easy in such a whirl of excitement as that in which I have lived."”
    “1746, Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.”
    “As the game opened up, Bolton squandered a fine opportunity to equalise - Chris Eagles shooting straight at Szczesny - but then back came Arsenal.”
  2. (obsolete, transitive)To scatter; to disperse.
    “[…]our ſquander’d Troops he rallies:[…]”
  3. (obsolete, transitive)To wander at random; to scatter.
    “[…]The Wiſe-mans folly is anathomiz’d / Euen by ſquandring glances of the foole.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown origin. Perhaps a blend of scatter + wander. Compare Danish skvætte (rare)/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette.

Anagrams of squander

1 play · some not in Scrabble

Words you can make from squander

175 playable · top: SQUARED (17 pts)

Best play squared 17 points

7-letter words

2 words

6-letter words

11 words

5-letter words

40 words

4-letter words

62 words

3-letter words

42 words

2-letter words

17 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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