1. Loss by deterioration, wear, or destruction: "Disease and desertion still caused much greater wastage than battle" (Theodore Ropp).
2. The gradual process of wasting.
3. An amount that is wasted or lost by wear.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.