candlewaster

English

Alternative forms

• candle-waster

Etymology

candle +‎ waster

Noun

candlewaster (plural candlewasters)

1. (obsolete, derogatory) One who consumes candles by staying up late reading and studying; a student.
   • c. 1598–1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 5, scene 1:

     If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, / And, sorrow wag, cry 'hem!' when he should groan, / Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk / With candle-wasters—bring him yet to me, / And I of him will gather patience.

   • 1600, Ben Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, act 3, scene 2:

     Heart, was there ever so prosperous an invention thus unluckily perverted and spoiled by a whoreson book-worm, a candle-waster?

Synonyms

• scholar, student

Related terms

• candle-wasting