Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

(I'm expecting Martha to field this one.)

My father, and my mother's older relatives, use "waste"--not as a hyperbole--to mean spill a liquid. "Honey, you wasted the ice tea all over the veranda. Let me get a rag." Can you confirm that this is rooted in the American South, and that I'm allowed a double take when I hear it?

(Dad's from the VA-NC border, and Mom's kin are from Southern Coastal North Carolina.)

Thanks, S