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 societyplay

2. a recklessly extravagant consumerplay

  Familiarity information: PROFLIGATE used as a noun is rare.


PROFLIGATE (adjective)
  The adjective PROFLIGATE has 2 senses:

1. recklessly wastefulplay

2. unrestrained by convention or moralityplay

  Familiarity information: PROFLIGATE used as an adjective is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


PROFLIGATE (noun)


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)


PROFLIGATE (adjective)


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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