profligate

Adjective

profligate (comparative more profligate, superlative most profligate)

1. 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!1728, John Vanbrugh, Colley Cibber, The Provok’d Husband; or, A Journey to London. A Comedy, […], London: […] J[ohn] Watts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1
   • 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...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 258

   Synonyms:

   extravagant, wasteful, prodigal, improvident, imprudent, lavish, loose-handed, reckless, spendthrift, squandering

2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.
   • Made prostitute and profligate the muse.1685, John Dryden, To The Pious Memory of the Accomplish'd Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew
   • 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.a. 1686, Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon]; Samuel Johnson, “The Sixth Ode of the Third Book of Horace”, in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical...

   Synonyms:

   immoral, licentious

3. (adjective, error-misspelling, participle) Overthrown, ruined.
   • The foe is profligate, and run.1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished...

Noun

profligate (plural profligates)

1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
   • Have you come to Nelson seeking your death, profligate?2010 October 19, Obsidian Entertainment, Fallout: New Vegas, Bethesda Softworks, level/area: Nelson
2. 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.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 152

   Synonyms:

   wastrel, big spender, dingthrift, neve, overspender, prodigal, saprophage, scattergood, slipstring, slipthrift

Verb

UK/ˈpɹɒflɪɡeɪt/US/ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/

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

1. (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
   • Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;1840, Alexander Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity and Divorce, page 157