Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DIS-SI-PA'TION, n.

1. The act of scattering; dispersion; the state of being dispersed; as, the dissipation of vapor or heat.
2. In physics, the insensible loss or waste of the minute parts of a body, which fly off, by which means the body is diminished or consumed.
3. Scattered attention; or that which diverts and calls off the mind from any subject. – Swift.
4. A dissolute, irregular course of life; a wandering from object to object in pursuit of pleasure; a course of life usually attended with careless and exorbitant expenditures of money, and indulgence in vices, which impair or ruin both health and fortune. What! is it proposed then to reclaim the spendthrift from his dissipation and extravagance, by filling his pockets with money? – P. Henry, Wirt's Sketches.