Wiktionary

profligate

English

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WOTD – 13 October 2007

Etymology

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From Latin prōflīgātus (“wretched, abandoned”), participle of prōflīgō (“strike down, cast down”), from pro (“forward”) + fligere (“to strike, dash”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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profligate (comparative more profligate, superlative most profligate)

  1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
    Synonyms: extravagant, wasteful, prodigal; see also Thesaurus:prodigal
    • 1728, John Vanbrugh, Colley Cibber, The Provok’d Husband; or, A Journey to London. A Comedy, […], London: […] J[ohn] Watts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
      [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!
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 258:
      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.
    • 2013 October 19, Ben Smith, BBC Sport:
      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.
    • 2018, Oliver Bullough, chapter 4, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 65:
      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: immoral, licentious
    • 1685, John Dryden, To The Pious Memory of the Accomplish'd Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew:
      Made prostitute and profligate the muse.
    • a. 1686, Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon], Samuel Johnson, “The Sixth Ode of the Third Book of Horace”, in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, […], volumes X (The Poems of Rochester, Roscommon, and Yalden), London: […] E. Cox; for C. Bathurst, […], published 1779, page 257, →OCLC:
      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. (obsolete) Overthrown, ruined.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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profligate (plural profligates)

  1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
  2. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.
    Synonyms: wastrel; see also Thesaurus:spendthrift, Thesaurus:prodigal

Translations

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Verb

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profligate (third-person singular simple present profligates, present participle profligating, simple past and past participle profligated)

  1. (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
    • 1840, Alexander Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity and Divorce, page 157:
      Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;
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Further reading

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Latin

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Adjective

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prōflīgāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of prōflīgātus
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