Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Given over to dissipation; dissolute.
- adj. Recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant.
- n. A profligate person; a wastrel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To drive away; disperse; discomfit; overcome.
- Overthrown; conquered; defeated.
- Ruined in morals; abandoned to vice; lost to principle, virtue, or decency; extremely vicious; shamelessly wicked.
- Synonyms Profligate, Abandoned, Reprobate, etc. See abandoned and wicked.
- n. An abandoned person; one who has lost all regard for good principles, virtue, or decency.
Wiktionary
- adj. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
- adj. Immoral; abandoned to vice.
- n. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
- n. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.
- v. To drive away; to overcome.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Overthrown; beaten; conquered.
- adj. Broken down in respect of rectitude, principle, virtue, or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute.
- n. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
- v. To drive away; to overcome.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. recklessly wasteful
- n. a recklessly extravagant consumer
- n. a dissolute man in fashionable society
- adj. unrestrained by convention or morality
Etymologies
- Latin prōflīgātus, past participle of prōflīgāre, to ruin, cast down : prō-, forward; see pro-1 + -flīgāre, intensive of flīgere, to strike down.
Examples
“N'dour has strongly criticised what he calls the profligate spending of the Wade leadership in a country where formal employment is rare and average income per head is $3 a day.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Moyo shows well how fundamental economic liberalisation espoused by what she calls the profligate, greedy, self-interested west has come back to bite it.”
“Rendell to task for what he calls profligate spending.”
“The tuition subsidy to foreigners costs state taxpayers an estimated $117 million per year — a substantial sum even in profligate California.”
“A planet with the limitations and the make-up of Earth cannot realistically be expected to much longer maintain profligate over-consumption and adamantine hoarding of limited resources as well as seemingly endless expansion of production capabilities by millions of people, mostly in the overdeveloped world, that we see occurring as a result of actions by a tiny minority of selfish people who possess the wealth and power needed to behave in this ostentatious way.”
Personal Sustainability: The Path to Worldwide Environmental Sustainability
“Know, O King that a certain profligate man, who was addicted to the sex, once heard of a beautiful and lovely woman who dwelt in a city other than his own.”
“Over the last few years there has been a tremendous turnaround in profligate government spending.”
“The girl who marries the rich old man or the titled profligate is condemned by the popular voice; and the girl who marries the poor young man, and helps him live his best, is still approved by the same great arbiter.”
“Sandwich, whom he called a profligate fellow -- hoped he was present, (741) and added, if he is not, I am ready to call him so to his face in any private company: even Rigby, his accomplice, said not a word in behalf of his brother culprit.”
“I wonder if your time might be better spent -- and the public better served -- if you were to critique policy as regards energy and conservation rather than the problems (and global warming is only the most worrisome) that stem from long-term profligate and inefficient energy use.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘profligate’.
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 194 more...
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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VOCUBLARY
purge, wield, remedy, shepherd, numen, bizarre, enamor, bigotry, tumult, commotion, agitate, rebuff and 8 more...
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Words of Interest
kingparton The worthless and profligate meet the public eye in our streets, on the wharves, and, occasionally, stretched in a state of intoxication on the pavements.
Mathew Carey, "Public Charities of Philadelphia" Aug 25, 2011
madmouth almost synonymous with 'rich man's son' Apr 13, 2009