spendthrift
Syllables: spend·thriftUK/ˈspɛn(d)θɹɪft/US/ˈspɛn(d)ˌθɹɪft/
spendthrift adjective: improvident, profligate, or wasteful.
Adjective
spendthrift (comparative more spendthrift, superlative most spendthrift)
- Improvident, profligate, or wasteful.
- Wel, go to wild oats, ſpend thrift prodigal, / Ile croſſe thy name quight from my reckning booke: / For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall ſcath thee ſome what, / I will not ſay what, ſomewhat it ſhall be.1621, attributed to Thomas Heywood or John Cooke, A Pleasant Conceited Comedy, wherein is Shewed, how a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad. As It hath been Sundry Times Acted by the Earle of...
- He was now esteemed quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet, who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him, and who could give his daughter at present but a small part of the share of ten thousand...1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC...
- Extravagant or lavish.
- Rufus's stone lies in the outskirts of the forest, and in a few minutes they emerged upon the broad heath which bounds it, then like a sea of gold; for the furze was in the first glory of its spendthrift wealth.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 269
- A high-powered entertainment that acceded to the spiraling capitalization costs of the big musical with a production of spendthrift command, La Cage [aux Folles] came in at summer's end as a guaranteed hit.2004, Ethan Mordden, “The Great Tradition”, in The Happiest Corpse I’ve Ever Seen: The Last Twenty-five Years of the Broadway Musical, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 6
Noun
spendthrift (plural spendthrifts)
- Someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully.
- [T]hat vve vvould doe / VVe ſhould doe vvhen vve vvould: for this vvould changes, / And hath abatements and delayes as many, / As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, / And then this ſhould is like a ſpend thrifts ſigh, / That hurts by eaſing; […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
- VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall, / Ile croſſe thy name quite from my reckoning booke: / For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall skathe thee ſomevvhat, / I vvill not ſay vvhat ſomevvhat it ſhall be.1602, [Thomas Heywood], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, wherein is Shewed How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for Mathew Lawe, […], →OCLC; reprinted as How a...
- Anything that distributes its attributes profusely, without restraint.
- It was one of those bright days in spring, which are very spendthrifts of sunshine, when the darkest alley in London wins a golden glimpse, and the eternal mist around St. Paul's turns to a glittering haze:...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Publishing”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 9
spendthrift meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
spendthrift in Tamil
- someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully
- ஊதாரி ūtāri
spendthrift in Urdu
- فضول خرچ, مسدود
spendthrift in Bengali
- অপব্যয়ী, উড়নচণ্ডী
spendthrift in Malayalam
- improvident, profligate, or wasteful
- ധൂർത്തൻ dhūṟttaṉ
More languagesFewer languages
- spendthrift in Kannada
- ದುಂದು, ಸೂರೆ ಕಾರ, ದುಂದುಗಾರ, ಪೋಲುಗ
- spendthrift in Tagalog
- buyangyang, labusak
- spendthrift in Arabic
- مُسْرِف musrif, مُبَذِّر mubaḏḏir
- spendthrift in Indonesian
- berfoya-foya
- spendthrift in Persian
- ولخرج velxarj
Examples of spendthrift in a sentence
- It is now 14 years since Roman Abramovich emerged as an spendthrift presence in west London.2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in The Guardian, London, archived...
- The drunken ſpendthrift vvaſts his beſt poſſeſſions.1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Prodigue”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, column 1:
Synonyms of spendthrift
- big spender
- overspender
- prodigal
- profligate
- saprophage
- splurge
- splurger
- squanderer
- waster
- dingthrift
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of spendthrift
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more spendthrift |
| superlative | most spendthrift |
| Noun | |
| plural | spendthrifts |
Origin of spendthrift
From spend + thrift (“(archaic) savings; profits; wealth”).
Words formed from spendthrift
Phrases with spendthrift
Questions about spendthrift
- What does spendthrift mean?
- Spendthrift means improvident, profligate, or wasteful.
- What is spendthrift in Tamil?
- Spendthrift in Tamil is ஊதாரி (ūtāri). See Spendthrift meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use spendthrift in a sentence?
- It is now 14 years since Roman Abramovich emerged as an spendthrift presence in west London.
- What part of speech is spendthrift?
- Spendthrift can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce spendthrift?
- Spendthrift is pronounced /ˈspɛn(d)θɹɪft/ (UK).
Words near spendthrift in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spendthrift (page history and authors); spendthrift (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spendthrift (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spendthrift (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-spendthrift.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spendthrift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spendthrift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.