Adjacent Words

Promiscuous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PROMIS'CUOUS, a. [L.promiscuus; pro and misceo, to mix.]
1. Mingled; consisting of individuals united in a body or mass without order; confused; undistinguished; as a promiscuous crowd or mass.
A wild where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot.
2. Common; indiscriminate; not restricted to an individual; as promiscuous love or intercourse.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not selective of a single class or person; "Clinton was criticized for his promiscuous solicitation of campaign money"
2: casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior; "her easy virtue"; "he was told to avoid loose (or light) women"; "wanton behavior" [syn: easy, light, loose, promiscuous, sluttish, wanton]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin promiscuus, from pro- forth + misc?re to mix — more at pro-, mix Date: 1601 1. composed of all sorts of persons or things 2. not restricted to one class, sort, or person ; indiscriminate <education…cheapened through the promiscuous distribution of diplomas — Norman Cousins> 3. not restricted to one sexual partner 4. casual, irregular <promiscuous eating habits> • promiscuously adverb • promiscuousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 a (of a person) having frequent and diverse sexual relationships, esp. transient ones. b (of sexual relationships) of this kind. 2 of mixed and indiscriminate composition or kinds; indiscriminate (promiscuous hospitality). 3 colloq. carelessly irregular; casual. Derivatives: promiscuity n. promiscuously adv. promiscuousness n. Etymology: L promiscuus (as PRO-(1), miscere mix)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Promiscuous Pro*mis"cu*ous, a. [L. promiscuus; pro before, in place of, for + miscere to mix. See Mix. ] 1. Consisting of individuals united in a body or mass without order; mingled; confused; undistinguished; as, a promiscuous crowd or mass. A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot. --Pope. 2. Distributed or applied without order or discrimination; not restricted to an individual; common; indiscriminate; as, promiscuous love or intercourse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Someone who is promiscuous has sex with many different people. She is perceived as vain, spoilt and promiscuous... ADJ [disapproval] • promiscuity He has recently urged more tolerance of sexual promiscuity.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Mixed, mingled, miscellaneous, indiscriminate, confused. 2. Indiscriminate, common.

Moby Thesaurus

Paphian, abandoned, aimless, amalgamated, ambiguous, ambivalent, amoral, amorphous, amphibious, assorted, blanket, blended, botched, bungling, capricious, careless, casual, causeless, chambering, chaotic, clumsy, combined, complex, composite, compound, compounded, confused, conglomerate, cursory, dappled, debauched, deficient, depraved, designless, desultory, disarticulated, discontinuous, dishonorable, disjunct, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, dispersed, disproportionate, disregardful, dissipated, dissolute, driftless, dysteleological, easy, eclectic, equivocal, erratic, faithless, fast, fifty-fifty, fitful, formless, frivolous, general, gratuitous, half-and-half, half-assed, haphazard, heedless, helter-skelter, heterogeneous, higgledy-piggledy, hit-and-miss, hit-or-miss, immethodical, immoderate, immoral, imprudent, inchoate, incoherent, indecent, indifferent, indiscreet, indiscriminate, indiscriminative, inexplicable, insensitive, intermingled, intermixed, intricate, ironic, irregular, irresponsible, jumbled, lax, libertine, licentious, light, loose, loose-moraled, many-sided, meaningless, medley, messy, mindless, mingled, miscellaneous, misshapen, mixed, motley, multifaceted, multifarious, multinational, multiracial, neglectful, negligent, nonjudgmental, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, of easy virtue, of loose morals, orderless, patchy, perfunctory, planless, pluralistic, profligate, purposeless, random, scrambled, senseless, shapeless, slack, slipshod, slipshoddy, sloppy, slovenly, sluttish, spasmodic, sporadic, stochastic, straggling, straggly, stray, syncretic, systemless, tactless, thoughtless, thrown together, unaccountable, unarranged, unbridled, uncaring, unchaste, unclassified, unconscientious, unconsidered, uncontrolled, uncritical, uncriticizing, uncurbed, undemanding, undifferentiating, undirected, undiscreet, undiscriminating, undiscriminative, unexacting, unfaithful, unfastidious, unfussy, ungoverned, ungraded, uninhibited, unjoined, unmethodical, unmeticulous, unmotivated, unordered, unorganized, unparticular, unplanned, unrestrained, unselective, unsorted, unsubtle, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, untactful, unthinking, untidy, ununiform, vague, varied, wandering, wanton, wayward, wholesale, whorish, wild