Log in or Sign up
  1. prodigal love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Rashly or wastefully extravagant: prodigal expenditures on unneeded weaponry; a prodigal life.
  2. adj. Giving or given in abundance; lavish or profuse: prodigal praise. See Synonyms at profuse.
  3. n. One who is given to wasteful luxury or extravagance.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other property without necessity; profuse; lavish; wasteful: said of persons: as, a prodigal man; the prodigal son.
  2. Profuse; lavish; wasteful: said of things: as, a prodigal expenditure of money.
  3. Very liberal; lavishly bountiful: as, nature is prodigal of her gifts.
  4. Proud. Synonyms Lavish, Profuse, etc. See extravagant.
  5. n. One who expends money extravagantly or without necessity; one who is profuse or lavish; a waster; a spendthrift. With the definite article, the prodigal, the term, taken from the ordinary chapter-heading, is used to designate the younger son in Christ's parable, Luke xv. 11-32.
  6. n. In civil law. a person of full age for whom, by judicial authority, a curator is appointed, by reason of his inability to attend to his obligations and estate.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. wastefully extravagant.
  2. adj. someone yielding profusely, lavish
  3. adj. profuse, lavishly abundant
  4. adj. returning after abandoning a person, group, or ideal, especially for selfish reasons; being a prodigal son.
  5. n. A prodigal person, a spendthrift.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other things without necessity; recklessly or viciously profuse; lavish; wasteful; not frugal or economical
  2. n. One who expends money extravagantly, viciously, or without necessity; one that is profuse or lavish in any expenditure; a waster; a spendthrift.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. recklessly wasteful
  2. n. a recklessly extravagant consumer

Etymologies

  1. From Late Latin prodigalis ("wasteful"), from Latin prodigus ("wasteful, lavish, prodigal"), from prodigere ("to consume, squander, drive forth"), from pro ("before, forward") + agere ("to drive"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Probably back-formation from prodigality. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘prodigal’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Louises Find out if the old lady approved of this prodigal arrangement Feb 19, 2013

Tweets

Looking for tweets for prodigal.

‘prodigal’ has been looked up 6493 times, loved by 9 people, added to 114 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 12.