dissipate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb to cause to separate and go in different directions
    dispel; scatter; break up; disperse.
    • She waved her hand and scattered the crowds
  2. verb move away from each other;
    scatter; disperse; spread out.
    • The crowds dispersed
    • The children scattered in all directions when the teacher approached
  3. verb spend frivolously and unwisely
    shoot; fool; fool away; fritter away; frivol away; fritter.
    • Fritter away one's inheritance
  4. verb live a life of pleasure, especially with respect to alcoholic consumption

WordNet

Dis"si*pate transitive verb
Etymology
L. dissipatus, p. p. of dissipare; dis- + an obsolete verb sipare, supare. to throw.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dissipated; present participle & verbal noun Dissipating
Definitions
  1. To scatter completely; to disperse and cause to disappear; -- used esp. of the dispersion of things that can never again be collected or restored.
    Dissipated those foggy mists of error. Selden.
    I soon dissipated his fears. Cook.
    The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy. Hazlitt.
  2. To destroy by wasteful extravagance or lavish use; to squander.
    The vast wealth . . . was in three years dissipated. Bp. Burnet.
    Syn. -- To disperse; scatter; dispel; spend; squander; waste; consume; lavish.
Dis"si*pate intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To separate into parts and disappear; to waste away; to scatter; to disperse; to vanish; as, a fog or cloud gradually dissipates before the rays or heat of the sun; the heat of a body dissipates.
  2. To be extravagant, wasteful, or dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure; to engage in dissipation.

Webster 1913