to dissipate
- verb
- /ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/
- "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
How Self-Indulgent
Surface Forms
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.