Not a word published — knowledge wasted (8)
I believe the answer is:
shrunken
'wasted' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'not a word published knowledge' is the wordplay.
'not a word' becomes 'sh'.
'published' becomes 'run' (as in a newspaper running a story).
'knowledge' becomes 'ken' (ken is a kind of knowledge).
'sh'+'run'+'ken'='SHRUNKEN'
(Other definitions for shrunken that I've seen before include "Having become smaller" , "Reduced" , "Shrivelled, withered" , "Shun kern to be made small" , "Contracted, shrivelled" .)