dissipate
verb
- to cause to spread thin or scatter and gradually vanish
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/
adj
Etymology: The verb is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the adjective from 1606 to 1765; from Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipātus, perfect passive participle of dissipō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), also written dissupō (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supō (“to throw”). Doublet of dissipe (“to dissipate”), now obsolete.
- dissipated
verb
Etymology: The verb is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the adjective from 1606 to 1765; from Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipātus, perfect passive participle of dissipō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), also written dissupō (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supō (“to throw”). Doublet of dissipe (“to dissipate”), now obsolete.
- To drive away, disperse.
“August 1773, James Cook, journal entry I soon dissipated his fears.”
“The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy.”
- To use up or waste; squander.
“The vast wealth […] was in three years dissipated.”
“So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.”
- To vanish by dispersion.
- To cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.
“The traction motors serve as generators when dynamic braking is used, the generated output being dissipated in fan-cooled resistance banks mounted in a removable roof section.”
“Regenerative braking is retained. Like rheostatic braking, this uses the traction motors to provide a braking effort, but the current developed is fed back into the overhead catenary rather than dissipated through resistance banks.”
- To be dissolute in conduct.