WASTE NOT, WANT NOT Definition & Meaning

Waste not, want not

If we don't waste what we have, we'll still have it in the future and will not lack (want) it.

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Idioms and Phrases

Wise use of one's resources will keep one from poverty. For example, I just hate to throw out good food—waste not, want not . This proverbial saying was first recorded in 1772 but had an earlier, even more alliterative version, willful waste makes woeful want (1576).

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Example Sentences

The result is a relatively respectable chicken quesadilla that not only sates you in the moment, but satisfies a core value of "waste not, want not."

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The Massier family was able to survive by adopting the philosophy of “waste not, want not,” “use it up or wear it out” and “make do or do without,” she said.

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Controlling waste is something everyone can do to help the planet, she said, in a column called "Waste not, want not".

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Art Shibley, the owner of the Yours Truly diner in Hudson, Ohio, began by attributing it to Depression-era thinking and the principle of “waste not, want not.”

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Waste not, want not: California’s wet winter has dumped an estimated 18 trillion gallons of rain in February alone.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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