to fritter away
4
6.0
- phrasal verb
- /ˈfrɪtər əˈweɪ/
:
desperdiciar
- Industrial planning in Canada and elsewhere has merely wasted taxpayers' money and frittered away scarce managerial and other resources.
- frittering away time
- frittering away money
- cash frittered away
They're just kind of doing nothing or they're frittering away their time.
- They're just kind of doing nothing or they're frittering away their time.
- Time would be mindlessly allowed to fly by and be frittered away.
- But when this idea, this purpose starts to fritter away and people lose it, a kind of collective madness ensues.
Examples
-
Maybe you'll grow up to be an engineer and not fritter away your time playin' worthless ball games.
-
You have frittered away your intelligence on frivolities, on drinking, and on coveting your neighbors' wives.
Fiction book (2002) -
This is how many women fritter away time on the wrong guys.
Blog text (14) -
That is almost half a working day frittered away every day.
Blog text (19) -
Yet, most of us are willing to fritter away privacy as if it were loose change.
Academic text (2004) -
Don't fritter away time and effort.
Fiction book (1999) -
l can't fritter away my savings like this.
-
You mean you've been frittering away aII my money?
-
Through war, revolution, and factional battle, there has been one Iranian constant: erratic financial policies which have frittered away the country's impressive economic potential.
Academic text (2008) -
You should avoid watching too much TV because it can cause you to fritter away your time each day.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To use or spend something carelessly and without good reason
728
1.6
To spend time doing things that are not useful instead of doing something more useful
265
5.3
To waste a lot of money on things you do not need
67
6.5
To use money, time, or chances in a foolish way
52
8.6
To spend money quickly on things you do not need
23
6.4
To waste money by spending it carelessly
16
4.4
Use up money or supplies quickly and wastefully
8
9.5
To waste time or money by being careless
4
3.5
Spend money on things you do not need
4
6.8
To waste small amounts of time, money, or energy little by little
3
7.0
To use money or energy in a foolish, wasteful way
1
9.9
To spend time on small, unimportant tasks instead of getting things done
1
6.5
To spend time or money in a wasteful way
1
6.9
To spend saved money quickly on things you do not need
1
9.9
Spending time or effort on something that will not work
To waste time, money, or chances on things that do not matter
To waste time doing small, unimportant things
To waste time by doing silly, unimportant things
To waste time, money, or chances by being careless
To spend time on things that are not useful
To waste time instead of doing something useful
Spend time or money on unimportant things
To spend money carelessly and waste it
Lose money, time, or effort by wasting it so it cannot be used
To waste money or other things by being careless
Antonyms
How Wasteful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'fritter' already means to squander and the particle 'away' contributes the sense of dispersal or gradual loss, so the combined meaning 'to waste money, time, or resources on unimportant things' is directly derivable from the parts. The verb+away compositional pattern is common in English (and has parallels in other languages), making this construction predictable for a learner who knows the constituent meanings.
Etymology
The phrasal verb fritter away may come from small fried cakes called fritters. One popular story says people ate these tiny cakes little by little until they were all gone, so fritter away came to mean 'to waste' time, money, or chances slowly and in small amounts.