What is the Ukrainian word with the closest meaning to the English verb "waste"?

Question

Waste (verb): use or expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose.

Is there a word in Ukrainian that carries a similar meaning and is derived from a word with an obviously negative connotation? For example the noun of "waste" is "відходи", but can it be converted into a verb in Ukrainian?

I'd like something to use in sentences like:

"Don't waste water!"

"He wasted money on a luxury car."

"The government is wasting a portion of the budget."

Answer 1

• марнувати — Даремно, без користі витрачати гроші, майно тощо. (to spend uselessly, to no purpose — money, assets, etc.)
• гаяти — Витрачати марно, марнувати (стосовно часу) (to waste, usually in relation to time)

The example sentences above would be:

• не марнуй воду
• він змарнував гроші на покупку дорогої автівки
• уряд марнує частину бюджету

Answer 2

In addition to what bytebuster said (actually, his variants are the best, but there are others):

• Ukrainian language has the words витрачати and тратити. They mean literally "to spend", but with additional adverbs: витрачати марно, витрачати дарма (даремно) ("to spend with no purpose, with no positive effects, needlessly, uselessly, in vain") they mean what you need.

  ^{BTW, do you notice that марно from my answer is a cognate of the марнувати (from bytebuster's answer)? I suppose марнувати to be a verb created from the adverb марно.}

• There is another verb created from марно — марнотратити. As you can suppose from its look, it's марно тратити.

• There is another one created from тратити (витрачати) — in this case not with adverb or an extra stem, but with prefix роз- (which, when added to a verb, often, but not always, increases intensity of the verb) — розтрачувати (розтрачати, розтратити) (розтратити X — "to spend all of X here and there, to disperse it"). It doesn't always mean careless/needless spends, but most often does (also it can mean a criminal waste of money/resources not owned by the spender, e.g. by a state servant).

• Colloquial, but widely used:

  • тринькати (розтринькувати);
  • циндрити (проциндрювати).
  • In figurative sense:
    • викидати — "to throw away";
    • спускати — "to lower/let down";
    • мотати (промотувати) — "to entwine/coil/etc".

• In specific contexts:

  • пропивати — "to spend on drinks";
  • прогулювати — "to spend on entertainments";
  • _{dial., col., fig.} вакувати — "to lose time".

• Rare:

  • _fig. розточувати — "to bore/grind/etc (on lathe)";
  • _col. збавляти — "to decrease".