wasting away

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "wasting away" is correct and commonly used in written English.
It is often used to describe someone or something slowly deteriorating or becoming weaker. Example: Despite his best efforts, the patient's condition continued to worsen, and he was wasting away before our very eyes. or The abandoned house had been left to decay for years, and its walls were now wasting away, covered in peeling paint and crumbling bricks.

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Science

Formal & Business

Academia

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

People are wasteful, wasted, wasting away".

The New York Times

Poor man is wasting away!

The Guardian - Film

"My friends thought I was wasting away".

The New Yorker

"The reefs are wasting away," Langdon said.

The Guardian

ASIA's troubled tigers appear to be wasting away.

The Economist

One in five Somali children is wasting away from malnutrition.

The New York Times

In the nursing home, Mr. Jiménez began wasting away.

The New York Times

He was wasting away and has recovered his strength.

The New York Times

They picture themselves wasting away like Tom Hanks in Philadelphia.

The Guardian

She appears to be wasting away, possibly killing herself.

The New York Times - Magazine

Some preferred to see her as Gandhi, nonviolent, implacable, wasting away to shame the regime.

The New York Times

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Apply the phrase metaphorically to institutions, organizations or abstract concepts like 'hope' to suggest they are losing their essential strength.

Common error

Avoid using "wasting away" when you actually mean someone is simply misusing time or money. While "wasting time" refers to poor resource management, "wasting away" specifically denotes a gradual, often involuntary loss of physical or structural integrity.

Linguistic Context

The phrase "wasting away" functions as a present participle verb phrase typically used in continuous tenses. It combines the verb 'waste' with the particle 'away' to create an intransitive phrasal verb that describes a process of gradual reduction. According to Ludwig AI, it frequently appears after the auxiliary verb 'to be' to indicate an ongoing state of decline.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

65%

Science & Medicine

15%

Formal & Business

10%

Less common in

Academia

5%

Wiki

3%

Social Media

2%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

The phrase "wasting away" is a powerful idiomatic expression that denotes a slow, progressive decline in health, strength or integrity. Ludwig AI confirms its grammatical correctness and wide adoption across high-tier publications like The New York Times and BBC. While it is most frequently applied to describe the physical effects of malnutrition or illness, it is equally effective in describing the erosion of institutions or resources. When using this phrase, writers should be mindful of its emotional resonance, as it carries a stronger connotation of tragedy than more clinical alternatives like "deteriorating" or "declining". It remains a staple in English for expressing a loss of vitality that occurs right before one's eyes.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

deteriorating

Provides a more formal and clinical tone for physical or structural decline

withering away

Emphasizes a natural or organic drying up, often used for plants or feelings

losing weight rapidly

A literal, non-idiomatic description of the physical aspect of the phrase

atrophying

Specifically refers to the medical or biological wasting of muscles or organs

fading away

Suggests a gradual disappearance or loss of presence rather than just physical mass

declining

A broader term often used for health, numbers or economic strength

dwindling

Focuses on the gradual reduction in size, amount or strength of resources

shriveling

Implies a loss of moisture or vitality, resulting in a wrinkled or smaller state

ebbing away

Uses a tidal metaphor to describe a slow, outward flow of life or energy

degenerating

Suggests a decline into a lower or worse state of being or function

FAQs

How to use "wasting away" in a sentence?

You can use it to describe physical decline, such as "The patient was "wasting away" due to the illness", or metaphorically, as in "The once-great empire is now "wasting away"".

What is the difference between "wasting away" and "deteriorating"?

While both mean declining, "deteriorating" is more formal and clinical, whereas "wasting away" is more evocative and idiomatic, often used to describe visible loss of body mass.

Can "wasting away" refer to objects?

Yes, it can describe physical erosion, such as a coastline "wasting away" because of the waves, or an abandoned building "slowly wasting away".

What does it mean metaphorically?

Metaphorically, it implies that something is losing its power, relevance or vitality over time, much like a person "losing strength".