Synonyms of squandering

squandering 1 of 3

adjective

as in wasteful

given to spending money freely or foolishly

the nightclub's ridiculous prices seem geared to squandering revelers with more money than sense

Synonyms & Similar Words

• wasteful
• profligate
• prodigal
• extravagant
• spendthrift
• generous
• careless
• high-rolling
• lavish
• reckless
• unthrifty
• liberal
• philanthropic
• bountiful
• thriftless
• improvident
• unstinting
• heedless
• munificent
• shortsighted
• injudicious
• openhanded
• imprudent
• myopic
• unselfish
• charitable
• incautious
• bighearted
• indulgent
• unsparing
• splurging
• openhearted
• unwise
• freehanded
• self-indulgent
• wanton
• freehearted

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• conserving
• economical
• spare
• frugal
• thrifty
• sparing
• cheap
• miserly
• close
• mean
• stingy
• parsimonious
• pinching
• economizing
• penurious
• careful
• tight
• skimping
• scrimping
• judicious
• tightfisted
• wise
• prudent
• penny-pinching
• sensible
• stinting
• provident
• closefisted
• foresighted
• farsighted
• forehanded
• foreseeing
• forethoughtful

squandering

2 of 3

noun

as in wastefulness

Related Words

• wastefulness
• profligacy
• dissipation
• wastage
• profusion
• loss
• overindulgence
• excess
• indulgence
• splurge
• luxury
• prodigality
• extravagance
• self-indulgence
• overkill
• waste
• immoderacy

Dissimilar Words

• necessity
• saving
• economy
• conservation
• thrift
• frugality
• parsimony
• economizing
• restraint
• skimping
• scrimping
• moderation
• temperance
• belt-tightening
• austerity
• penny-pinching
• temperateness

squandering

3 of 3

verb

present participle of squander

1

as in spending

to use up carelessly

squandered all her money gambling in casinos

Synonyms & Similar Words

• spending
• losing
• wasting
• lavishing
• dissipating
• misspending
• blowing
• running through
• throwing away
• trifling (away)
• frittering (away)
• depleting
• fiddling away
• consuming
• playing ducks and drakes with
• overspending
• expending
• splurging
• impoverishing
• indulging
• exhausting
• disbursing
• overindulging
• shooting
• laying out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• conserving
• protecting
• preserving
• saving
• economizing
• skimping
• scrimping
• hoarding
• laying up

2

as in dispersing

to cause (members of a group) to move widely apart

a single blast of the shotgun squandered the herd of deer

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dispersing
• dissipating
• scattering
• dispelling
• isolating
• disbanding
• segregating
• disseminating
• separating
• parting
• clearing out
• splitting (up)
• diffusing
• spreading
• diverging
• breaking up

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• collecting
• concentrating
• assembling
• gathering
• congregating
• clustering
• ingathering
• uniting
• agglutinating
• unifying
• conglomerating

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of squandering

Noun

An everyman figure squeezing every bit of talent from his frame, a boy who returned to working as a fisherman after the first squandering of his football dream, from a family that could not always afford to buy him studded boots. — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 19 June 2026

Watching students use that platform to walk out on the CEO of one of the world’s most consequential companies clearly struck him as a squandering of rare privilege. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 15 June 2026

This is the sort of managerial aimlessness the Post is being governed by, just one example of the missteps and squandering of opportunity framed as strategy. — Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 5 Feb. 2026

Verb

The Braves suffered a dreadful defeat Wednesday in Game 2 of the Wild Card series, squandering a late lead to lose 4-3 to the Phillies and force a winner-take-all Game 3. — Gabriel Burns, AJC.com, 1 Oct. 2026

The United States, however, risks squandering this opportunity by not prioritizing its relationship with Japan. — David Sacks, Foreign Affairs, 28 Sep. 2026

However, conventional disposal tactics like landfills and incineration trigger severe environmental pollution while squandering valuable resources. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 21 Sep. 2026

Given the way this roster is constructed, squandering those chances is impossible to overcome. — Chandler Rome, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2026

Around baseball, the Halos became an absolute punchline for squandering the prime years of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the exact same roster. — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 1 Sep. 2026

In squandering a 10-point lead over the final seven minutes, the Steelers closed the preseason 1-2. — CBS News, 28 Aug. 2026

The Valkyries needed a big second half after squandering a double-digit lead late in the second quarter. — ABC News, 2 Aug. 2026

But Congress is on the verge of making a terrible mistake by squandering the opportunity to appropriately regulate this industry that has fought for clarity for so long. — Anthony Scaramucci, Fortune, 1 Aug. 2026