dissipation

Etymology

From Middle English dissipacion, dissipacioun, from Late Latin dissipātiō. Morphologically dissipate + -ion.

noun

1. The act of dissipating or dispersing; a state of dispersion or separation; dispersion; waste.
2. A dissolute course of life, in which health, money, etc., are squandered in pursuit of pleasure; profuseness in immoral indulgence, as late hours, riotous living, etc.; dissoluteness.
   18th century, Patrick Henry in a parliamentary debate to reclaim the spendthrift from his dissipation and extravagance
   … This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, … 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad, →OL
3. A trifle which wastes time or distracts attention.
   Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. 1733 May 28, letter from Alexander Pope to Jonathan Swift
4. (physics) A loss of energy, usually as heat, from a dynamic system.
   They conclude[…] the planet will have a final period of rotation between 56 and 88 days, depending on the assumed form of the dissipation function. November 6, 1965, G. Colombo, “Rotational Period of the Planet Mercury”, in Nature, volume 208, number 575, →DOI