Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Libertinism.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character or belief of a libertine or free-thinker; laxity of opinion.
  • noun The conduct of a libertine or debauchee.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare Libertinism; license.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The conduct or activities of a libertine; licentiousness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the French libertinage.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word libertinage.

Examples

  • He wrote of some Frenchmen and Indians as living in a state that he called libertinage and license, which was in his thinking the vice of liberty and the anarchy of selfishness, egoism, personal autonomy, and individual self-seeking.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • He wrote of some Frenchmen and Indians as living in a state that he called libertinage and license, which was in his thinking the vice of liberty and the anarchy of selfishness, egoism, personal autonomy, and individual self-seeking.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • One of the words Brown uses most often in private to describe the Tory leader is "libertarian": a word that conveys his belief that Cameron's "compassionate conservatism" is mere window-dressing, but also hints at a decadent strain of Tory libertinage, drug-taking and yacht-fondling.

    This Country Needs More Yacht-fondling 2009

  • In other words, it has led to post-hippy, postmodern anarchy and libertinage -- or to various forms of secular-government religions such as national socialism, fascism, and communism.

    Government Fundamentalists, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • More likely, the potential dad pool is not daydreaming about sacrificing the peak years of libertinage for a single woman and sober family life.

    Néojaponisme » Blog Archive » The Yanmama Boom 2009

  • There is a difference between freedom of speech and libertinage; the two news stations that were closed where used to promote riots and to preach incoherent news such as “it was a bad thing that the holocaust did not eliminate all the Jews”… Even hugo Lloren sent a letter to the president of such station because such disparate was put on the air.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » “CRS Report” on Honduras “Coup”: 2009

  • One of the words Brown uses most often in private to describe the Tory leader is "libertarian": a word that conveys his belief that Cameron's "compassionate conservatism" is mere window-dressing, but also hints at a decadent strain of Tory libertinage, drug-taking and yacht-fondling.

    John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting... 2009

  • There is a difference between freedom of speech and libertinage; the two news stations that were closed where used to promote riots and to preach incoherent news such as “it was a bad thing that the holocaust did not eliminate all the Jews”… Even hugo Lloren sent a letter to the president of such station because such disparate was put on the air.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Release the Koh Memorandum on Honduras 2009

  • He had a language to describe an excess of liberty—libertinage, as in our libertine, and license.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • He had a language to describe an excess of liberty—libertinage, as in our libertine, and license.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

Comments

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