Definition of "dissipation"

without loss or dissipation of the matter

1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]

the famous dissipation of mankind

a. 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677

to reclaim the spendthrift from his dissipation and extravagance

18th century, Patrick Henry in a parliamentary debate

I rose by candle-light, and consumed, in the intensest application, the hours which every other individual of our party wasted in enervating slumbers, from the hesternal dissipation or debauch.

1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XX, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 196

He neither wept nor prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation.

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], “chapter VIII”, in Wuthering Heights, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]

[...] 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

Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations.

1733 May 28, letter from Alexander Pope to Jonathan Swift

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.

1965 November 6, G. Colombo, “Rotational Period of the Planet Mercury”, in Nature, volume 208, number 575