Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To break apart or attenuate to the point of disappearing: synonym: scatter.
  • intransitive verb To drive away; cause to vanish.
  • intransitive verb To spend or expend intemperately or wastefully; squander.
  • intransitive verb To use up, especially recklessly; exhaust: synonym: waste.
  • intransitive verb To cause to lose (energy, such as heat) irreversibly.
  • intransitive verb To be attenuated and vanish.
  • intransitive verb To become dispelled; vanish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to pass or melt away; scatter or drive off in all directions; dispel: as, wind dissipates fog; the heat of the sun dissipates vapor; mirth dissipates care.
  • To expend wastefully; scatter extravagantly or improvidently; waste, as property by foolish outlay, or the powers of the mind by devotion to trivial pursuits.
  • Synonyms Dissipate, Dispel, Disperse, Scatter. These words are often interchangeable. Dissipate and dispel, however, properly apply to the dispersion of things that vanish and are not afterward collected; dissipate is the more energetic, and dispel is more often used figuratively: as, to dissipate vapor; to dissipate a fortune; to dispel doubt; to dispel uncertainty. Disperse and scatter are applied to things which may be again brought together: as, to scatter or disperse troops; or to things which are quite as real and tangible after scattering or dispersing as before: as, to gather up one's scattered wits.
  • To become scattered, dispersed, or diffused; come to an end or vanish through dispersion or diffusion.
  • To engage in extravagant, excessive, or dissolute pleasures; be loose in conduct.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To separate into parts and disappear; to waste away; to scatter; to disperse; to vanish
  • intransitive verb To be extravagant, wasteful, or dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure; to engage in dissipation.
  • transitive verb To scatter completely; to disperse and cause to disappear; -- used esp. of the dispersion of things that can never again be collected or restored.
  • transitive verb To destroy by wasteful extravagance or lavish use; to squander.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To drive away, disperse.
  • verb To use up or waste.
  • verb To vanish by dispersion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb live a life of pleasure, especially with respect to alcoholic consumption
  • verb spend frivolously and unwisely
  • verb move away from each other
  • verb to cause to separate and go in different directions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipāre, dissipāt-.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin dissipatus, past participle of dissipare, also written dissupare ("to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate"), from dis- ("apart") + supare ("to throw"), also in comp. insipare ("to throw into").

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Examples

  • Ive heared of a Victorian remedy of putting white vinegar on a small strip of cloth tied around the forehead to help heat dissipate from the head (we could also use small ice packs today) which also helps ward off headaches from the heat (mint essentail oil helps dissipate heat too).

    The Longevity of the Victorian Architecture 2007

  • And what's fascinating about this love story, if you will, is that the intensity of that honeymoon stage never seemed to dissipate, which is very unusual, when you think about it.

    CNN Transcript Jul 10, 2007 2007

  • That this country cannot be boxed easily and therefore appointed labels dissipate easily.

    Bloggers.Pakistan 2009

  • That this country cannot be boxed easily and therefore appointed labels dissipate easily.

    Pak Tea House 2009

  • So the waves tend to kind of dissipate and it allows for a smoother surface, better times.

    CNN Transcript Aug 13, 2008 2008

  • Both were very hot and seemed to just kind of dissipate later in the week.

    CNN Transcript Jul 18, 2004 2004

  • JEFF LIVICK, TIMBERLINE SKI PATROL: I felt the rotor wash kind of dissipate, at which point I looked up.

    CNN Transcript May 31, 2002 2002

  • Gershom began to "dissipate," as it has got to be matter of convention to term "drinking."

    Oak Openings James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • So I guess we'd expect part of that outgrowth to kind of dissipate and the rest at least kind of remains through the year.

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2010

  • Prosecutors added that Mrs. Ruth Madoff, while not a party to the proceeding, cannot be trusted to enforce not to unilaterally "dissipate" the assets.

    ABC News: ABCNews 2009

Comments

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  • grown too old to live life frisky

    --time to dissipate some whiskey

    --jorge999

    November 6, 2009