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to dissipate

to dissipate

1 8.6
To spend time and money on pleasure, often drinking too much
  • verb
  • /ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/
translation icon : malgastar
  • "I know it's funny," she said, "most people, including my family, think that musicians drink and smoke; they think that musicians are completely dissipated, but Michel isn't like that."
  • dissipate one's life
  • dissipate one's energy
  • look dissipated

Examples

  • Mick, whether discouraged, exuberant, or dissipated, was always a guy you thought you knew.

    Academic text (2001)
  • A dissipated dandy of a man.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Like his partner, this fellow had the look of a dissipated frog: bald, superior, full of flies.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Now then, ladies, what you see before you... Is a moderately presentable man in his 30s, given to unhealthy thoughts and a dissipated lifestyle...

  • One felt that this year of fugitive adversity must have matured George, honing him from a dissipated selfish fop into a stern, dedicated patriot.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • After weeks of partying and drinking, he realized he had begun to dissipate his energy and time without purpose.

  • She noticed that her friends would often dissipate their evenings in bars instead of focusing on their goals.

  • Despite the pressure of work, he chose to dissipate his weekends in leisure activities and socializing.

Antonyms

18 5.0

To choose not to take something, often for health or religious reasons

How Self-Indulgent

to debauch
  • NSFW
3 9.9
to dissipate
1 8.6
to indulge
68 4.3
to socialize
  • US
68 2.8

Surface Forms

dissipate infinitive
dissipated past
dissipated past participle
dissipating present participle
dissipates third person singular

Morphology

dissipate = dissip + ate

Although the verb ends in the familiar suffix '-ate', the stem 'dissip-' is not a standalone English word and the apparent prefix 'dis-' does not function transparently here, so learners cannot reliably infer the meaning from component parts.

Etymology

Dissipate comes from dis- 'apart' and a root meaning 'scatter', and a helpful way to remember this meaning is to imagine a person scattering their time and energy on pleasures. So to dissipate in this sense is to lose yourself in pleasure and neglect what matters.