SPENDTHRIFT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spendthrift mean? 

• SPENDTHRIFT (noun)
  The noun SPENDTHRIFT has 1 sense:

1. someone who spends money prodigally

  Familiarity information: SPENDTHRIFT used as a noun is very rare.

• SPENDTHRIFT (adjective)
  The adjective SPENDTHRIFT has 1 sense:

1. recklessly wasteful

  Familiarity information: SPENDTHRIFT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPENDTHRIFT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who spends money prodigally

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

scattergood; spend-all; spender; spendthrift

Hypernyms ("spendthrift" is a kind of...):

prodigal; profligate; squanderer (a recklessly extravagant consumer)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spendthrift"):

big spender; high roller (one who spends lavishly and ostentatiously on entertainment)

• SPENDTHRIFT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Recklessly wasteful

Synonyms:

extravagant; prodigal; profligate; spendthrift

Context example:

prodigal in their expenditures

Similar:

wasteful (tending to squander and waste)

 Context examples 

Those people have what the researchers call a “thrifty” metabolism, compared to a “spendthrift” metabolism in those who lost the most weight and whose metabolism decreased the least.

(Ease of weight loss influenced by individual biology, NIH)

The spendthrift years have marked him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Nature is a spendthrift. Look at the fish and their millions of eggs.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But this did not at all suit the views of the landlord, who saw in this lucky incident a chance of reaping a fresh harvest from his spendthrift company.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was now esteemed quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet, who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him, and who could give his daughter at present but a small part of the share of ten thousand pounds which must be hers hereafter.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

New research led by University of Utah biologists William Anderegg, Anna Trugman and David Bowling finds that some plants and trees are prolific spendthrifts in drought conditions, using precious soil water to cool themselves and, in the process, making droughts more intense.

(How trees affect the weather, National Science Foundation)