Adjacent Words

Profligate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PROF'LIGATE, a. [L. profligatus, profligo, to rout, to ruin; pro and fligo, to drive or dash. The word then signifies dashed, broken or ruined in morals. See Flog and Afflict.]
Abandoned to vice; lost to principle,virtue or decency; extremely vicious; shameless in wickedness; as a profligate man or wretch.
Next age will see
A race more profligate than we.
Made prostitute and profligate the muse,
Debas'd to each obscene and impious use.
PROF'LIGATE, n. An abandoned man; a wretch who has lost all regard to good principles,virtue or decency.
How could such a profligate as Antony, or a boy of eighteen like Octavius,ever dare to dream of giving law to such an empire?
PROF'LIGATE, v.t. To drive away; a Latin signification. [Not used.]
1. To overcome. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: recklessly wasteful; "prodigal in their expenditures" [syn: extravagant, prodigal, profligate, spendthrift]
2: unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women" [syn: debauched, degenerate, degraded, dissipated, dissolute, libertine, profligate, riotous, fast] n
1: a dissolute man in fashionable society [syn: rake, rakehell, profligate, rip, blood, roue]
2: a recklessly extravagant consumer [syn: prodigal, profligate, squanderer]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin profligatus, from past participle of profligare to strike down, from pro- forward, down + -fligare (akin to fligere to strike); akin to Greek phlibein to squeeze Date: 1647 1. completely given up to dissipation and licentiousness 2. wildly extravagant ; prodigal • profligately adverb II. noun Date: 1709 a person given to wildly extravagant and usually grossly self-indulgent expenditure

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 licentious; dissolute. 2 recklessly extravagant. --n. a profligate person. Derivatives: profligacy n. profligately adv. Etymology: L profligatus dissolute, past part. of profligare overthrow, ruin (as PRO-(1), fligere strike down)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Profligate Prof"li*gate, n. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person. ``Such a profligate as Antony.'' --Swift.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Profligate Prof"li*gate, v. t. To drive away; to overcome. Note: [A Latinism] [Obs.] --Harvey.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Profligate Prof"li*gate, a. [L. profligatus, p. p. of profligare to strike or dash to the ground, to destroy; pro before + a word akin to fligere to strike. See Afflict.] 1. Overthrown; beaten; conquered. [Obs.] The foe is profligate, and run. --Hudibras. 2. Broken down in respect of rectitude, principle, virtue, or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. --Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. --Dryden. Syn: Abandoned; corrupt; dissolute; vitiated; depraved; vicious; wicked. See Abandoned.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Someone who is profligate spends too much money or uses too much of something. (FORMAL) ...the most profligate consumer of energy in the world. = wasteful ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. Depraved, corrupt, immoral, vitiated, dissolute, corrupted, very wicked, graceless, very vicious, shameless, abandoned, lost to virtue. II. n. Debauchee, rake, libertine, man of pleasure, reprobate, roué.

Moby Thesaurus

Casanova, Don Juan, Lothario, abandoned, backslider, bad egg, bad lot, black sheep, carnal, contaminated, corrupt, corrupted, debased, debauched, debauchee, decadent, degenerate, degraded, depraved, dissipated, dissipative, dissolute, easy come, easy go, erotic, evil, excessive, extravagant, fallen angel, fast, free, gallant, gay, gay deceiver, gay dog, good-for-nothing, immoderate, immoral, improvident, incontinent, indecent, iniquitous, intemperate, lady-killer, lascivious, lavish, lecher, lecherous, lewd, libertine, licentious, loose, lost sheep, lost soul, lover-boy, miscreant, morally polluted, no-good, overgenerous, overlavish, overliberal, penny-wise and pound-foolish, pervert, perverted, philanderer, pimp, polluted, pound-foolish, prodigal, profuse, promiscuous, rake, rakehell, rakehellish, rakehelly, rakish, recidivist, reckless, recreant, reprobate, rip, rotten, roue, rounder, scapegrace, sensual, sensualist, shameless, sinful, sinner, skirt chaser, sodomite, sorry lot, spender, spendthrift, squanderer, squandering, steeped in iniquity, swinger, sybarite, sybaritic, tainted, trollop, unbridled, unprincipled, unrestrained, vice-corrupted, vitiated, voluptuary, voluptuous, walking phallus, wanton, warped, wasteful, waster, wastethrift, wastrel, whore, whoremonger, wicked, wild, wolf, woman chaser, womanizer