Other forms: squandered, squandering, squanders
To squander is to waste something valuable. Squander the money, squandered the lead, squander an opportunity.
It always implies that the thing was worth having and could have been used well, which is what makes it a reproach rather than a description. It suits money, leads, chances and talent. Note squandered as an adjective; and that the word's origin is genuinely unknown — a blend of scatter and wander has been suggested and never proved.
1verbsquanderTo waste something valuable.
“He squandered his inheritance on fast cars and expensive holidays.”
squander is a wasting.
The word appears in the late sixteenth century meaning to spend recklessly or scatter widely, of unknown origin. A blend of scatter and wander has been proposed without evidence.
Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown. Perhaps a scatter and wander. Compare Danish skvætte rare/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA