Wasted

Wasted is when you are killed on a GTA game by losing all your health and armor.

Many things can contribute to this:

Drowning (in GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City Stories you have a breath meter which has to run out to be wasted)
Damage from explosions
Damage from being shot
Trapped in an exploding vehicle
Catching fire
Damage from beatings from pedestrians/police.
Damage from falling off a high point, failing to open parachute (San Andreas)
Being ran over by a passing vehicle
Stumble down the steps when drunk (in GTA IV)

As a result of being Wasted in GTA III you will lose all weapons and $100, the same as being Busted. Any missions you are on will fail and you have start over again. In GTA IV you are fined 10% of your money ($10,000 max) and keep your weapons.