| English Dictionary |
PROFLIGATE
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does profligate mean?
• PROFLIGATE (noun)
The noun PROFLIGATE has 2 senses:
1. a dissolute man in fashionable society
2. a recklessly extravagant consumer
Familiarity information: PROFLIGATE used as a noun is rare.
• PROFLIGATE (adjective)
The adjective PROFLIGATE has 2 senses:
1. recklessly wasteful
2. unrestrained by convention or morality
Familiarity information: PROFLIGATE used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A dissolute man in fashionable society
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
blood; profligate; rake; rakehell; rip; roue
Hypernyms ("profligate" is a kind of...):
debauchee; libertine; rounder (a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained)
Derivation:
profligate (unrestrained by convention or morality)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A recklessly extravagant consumer
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
prodigal; profligate; squanderer
Hypernyms ("profligate" is a kind of...):
consumer (a person who uses goods or services)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "profligate"):
scattergood; spend-all; spender; spendthrift (someone who spends money prodigally)
waster; wastrel (someone who dissipates resources self-indulgently)
Derivation:
profligate (recklessly wasteful)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Recklessly wasteful
Synonyms:
extravagant; prodigal; profligate; spendthrift
Context example:
prodigal in their expenditures
Similar:
wasteful (tending to squander and waste)
Derivation:
profligate (a recklessly extravagant consumer)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Unrestrained by convention or morality
Synonyms:
debauched; degenerate; degraded; dissipated; dissolute; fast; libertine; profligate; riotous
Context example:
fast women
Similar:
immoral (deliberately violating accepted principles of right and wrong)
Derivation:
profligate (a dissolute man in fashionable society)
Context examples
We both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word; that he has neither integrity nor honour; that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
If you think so, you must have a strange opinion of me; you must regard me as a plotting profligate—a base and low rake who has been simulating disinterested love in order to draw you into a snare deliberately laid, and strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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