profligate — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.

   Synonyms

   extravagantwastefulprodigal

   Examples

   More examples (4)

   [H]er Reputation—That—I have no Reaſon to believe is in Queſtion—But then hovv long her profligate Courſe of Pleaſures may make her able to keep it—is a ſhocking Queſtion! and her Preſumption VVhile ſhe keeps it—inſupportable!

   His undignified and profligate exile—needy suitor to-day to the only heiress of the royal French blood, and to-morrow to one of the nieces of the Italian adventurer, Mazarin. Utterly neglectful of what he owes to the kingdom which he hopes to regain, Charles has learned but adversity's worst lesson—expediency.

   Jay Rodriguez headed over and Dani Osvaldo might have done better with only David De Gea to beat and, as Southampton bordered on the profligate, United were far more ruthless.

   This luxury-loving and profligate shell company is registered at a betting shop on the Caledonian Road, an unlovely thoroughfare in North London on which you'd be more likely to find amphetamines than a top-notch lawyer.

2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.

   Synonyms

   immorallicentious

   Examples

   Made prostitute and profligate the muse.

   More examples (1)

   Time ſenſibly all things impairs; / Our fathers have been worſe than theirs; / And we than ours; next age will ſee / A race more profligate than we / (With all the pains we take) have ſkill enough to be.

3. Overthrown, ruined.

   Usage

   • adjective
   • error-misspelling
   • participle

   Examples

   The foe is profligate, and run.

Noun

1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.

   Examples

   Have you come to Nelson seeking your death, profligate?

2. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.

   Synonyms

   wastrel

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   He proposed to call witnesses to show how the prisoner, a profligate and spendthrift, had been at the end of his financial tether, and had also been carrying on an intrigue with a certain Mrs. Raikes, a neighbouring farmer’s wife.

Verb

1. To drive away; to overcome.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Related words

   profligation

   Examples

   Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;

Adjective

1. recklessly wasteful

   Synonyms

   extravagantprodigalspendthrift

   Examples

   prodigal in their expenditures

2. unrestrained by convention or morality

   Synonyms

   debaucheddegeneratedegradeddissipateddissolutelibertineriotousfast

   Examples

   Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society

   deplorably dissipated and degraded

   More examples (2)

   riotous living

   fast women

Noun

1. a dissolute man in fashionable society

   Synonyms

   rakerakehellripbloodroue

   Broader terms

   libertinedebaucheerounder

2. a recklessly extravagant consumer

   Synonyms

   prodigalsquanderer

   Broader terms

   consumer