profligate
noun
- extravagant, wasteful spender of money
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L339549 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɒflɪɡət/ / /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/ / /ˈpɹɒflɪɡeɪt/ / /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/
adj
Etymology: The adjective is first attested in 1535, the verb in 1542; borrowed from Latin prōflīgātus, perfect passive participle of prōflīgō (“to strike down, cast down”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 an 3) and pro-), from prō- (“forward”) + flīgō (“to strike, dash”) + -ō (1st conjugation compound verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
- Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
“[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!”
“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.”
- Immoral; abandoned to vice.
“Made prostitute and profligate the muse.”
“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.”
- Overthrown, ruined.
“The foe is profligate, and run.”
noun
Etymology: The adjective is first attested in 1535, the verb in 1542; borrowed from Latin prōflīgātus, perfect passive participle of prōflīgō (“to strike down, cast down”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 an 3) and pro-), from prō- (“forward”) + flīgō (“to strike, dash”) + -ō (1st conjugation compound verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
- An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
“Have you come to Nelson seeking your death, profligate?”
- An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.
“He proposed to call witnesses to show how the prisoner, a profligate and spendthrift, had been at the end of his financial tether, and had also been carrying on an intrigue with a certain Mrs. Raikes, a neighbouring farmer’s wife.”
verb
Etymology: The adjective is first attested in 1535, the verb in 1542; borrowed from Latin prōflīgātus, perfect passive participle of prōflīgō (“to strike down, cast down”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 an 3) and pro-), from prō- (“forward”) + flīgō (“to strike, dash”) + -ō (1st conjugation compound verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
- Obsolete form of profligated (past participle of profligate): profligated: routed, overcome, driven away.
“The Canon laws […] with their Author, are profligate out of this realm.”
“By whiche onely policie, the kynges armie was profligate and dispersed.”