profligate

From Latin prōflīgātus (“wretched, abandoned”), participle of prōflīgō (“strike down, cast down”), from pro (“forward”) + fligere (“to strike, dash”).

• (adjective, noun, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒflɪɡət/
• (adjective, noun, US) enPR: prŏʹflĭgət, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/
• (adjective, noun)

  Audio (US)

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• (verb, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒflɪɡeɪt/
• (verb, US) enPR: prŏʹflĭgāt, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/
• (verb)

  Audio (US)

  (file)

profligate (comparative more profligate, superlative most profligate)

1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
   • 2013, Ben Smith, "", BBC Sport, 19 October 2013:

     Jay Rodriguez headed over and Dani Osvaldo might have done better with only David De Gea to beat and, as Southampton bordered on the profligate, United were far more ruthless.

2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.
   • Roscommon

     a race more profligate than we

   • Dryden

     Made prostitute and profligate muse.

3. (obsolete) Overthrown, ruined.
   • Hudibras

     The foe is profligate, and run.

• (inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly): extravagant, wasteful, prodigal
• (immoral, abandoned to vice): immoral, licentious
• See also Thesaurus:prodigal

• profligateness

profligate (plural profligates)

1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
2. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.

• (overly wasteful or extravagant individual): wastrel
• See also Thesaurus:spendthrift and Thesaurus:prodigal

profligate (third-person singular simple present profligates, present participle profligating, simple past and past participle profligated)

1. (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
   • 1840, Alexander Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity and Divorce, page 157:

     Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;

• (to drive away; to overcome): overcome

• profligacy
• profligately
• profligateness
• profligation

• profligate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• profligate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

prōflīgāte

1. vocative masculine singular of prōflīgātus