1670 R. Baxter Life of Faith (new ed.) iii. xiii. 423 The heinous sin of time-wasting.

1702 Lives Anc. Philosophers vii. 258 Plato's διατριβὴ, he call'd κατατριβὴ, or Time-wasting.

1843 Zoist July 137 How much is there of time-serving, time-wasting, and time-killing, which might be profitably and agreeably employed, had the mind but been properly trained and its famishing organs supplied!

1853 C. M. Yonge Heir of Redclyffe I. xv. 258 Abstaining from the time-wasting that might have tempted him if he had had plenty of money to spend.

1919 Theosophical Path Apr. 347 The modern ideal of home, with its devotion..to selfish pleasure, to ease, to time-wasting, social ambition, and all sorts of temporal things.

1981 ‘J. Ross’ Dark Blue & Dangerous x. 58 The time-wasting had gone on long enough.

2008 Independent 1 Jan. 31/2 I welcome the justification of something which to everyone around me has always looked like total time-wasting.

1890 Huddersfield Chron. 4 Oct. 2/4 Huddersfield could not score—the excellent defence and more excellent knowledge of the art of time wasting possessed by the visitors preventing them.

1933 Manch. Guardian 28 Feb. 5/3 A new penalty has been introduced for [ice hockey] goalkeepers who break the new rule, or for time wasting.

1965 W. Grout My Country's Keeper 55 Umpire Col Egar was so furious at this amateurish attempt at time-wasting that he snapped to the Pakistani bowler: ‘Get up you Teddy Bear’.

1979 Chicago Tribune 18 June v. 7/7 He is so calculated with everything he does from time-wasting to tying up his shoes between points.

2001 Independent on Sunday (Electronic ed.) 28 Oct. Their passable catenaccio imitation seemed poised to bring reward until their time-wasting came back to haunt them.

1626 W. Vaughan Golden Fleece Pref. 3 Those prodigious, idle, and time-wasting Bookes, called the Mirrour of Knighthood..and the like rabblement.

1691 R. Baxter Certainty Worlds of Spirits 252 That vile Time-wasting Sin of Cards and Dice.

1793 Jrnls. & Lett. (1972) II. 137 The tortures of applications, expectations, attendance, disappointment, & time wasting hopes & fears.

1845 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. c16 Apr. (1954) I. 187 I am..full of hope that..I shall be able to ward off these time-wasting visitations.

1921 T. S. Eliot Let. 2 May (1988) I. 449 A congeries of people, who are mostly futile and timewasting, except when you want to pass an evening agreeably in a café.

1976 S. R. Simpson Land Law & Registration viii. 144 Sporadic survey is expensive and time-wasting.

2003 Independent on Sunday 19 Jan. 13/1 The systems that give us recorded voices instead of human beings, time-wasting option menus and annoying canned music.