From , participle of prōflīgō, from pro ("forward") + fligere ("to strike, dash").

• • (RP) IPA: /ˈpɹɒflɪɡət/
  • (America) enPR: prŏʹflĭgət, IPA: /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈpɹɒflɪɡeɪt/
  • (America) enPR: prŏʹflĭgāt, IPA: /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/

profligate

1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.

   Synonyms: extravagant, wasteful, prodigal, Thesaurus:prodigal

   • 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 ↗:

     [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!

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC ↗, page 258 ↗:

     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.

2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.

   Synonyms: immoral, licentious

   • 1685, John Dryden, To The Pious Memory of the Accomplish'd Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew:

     Made prostitute and profligate the muse.

3. (obsolete) Overthrown, ruined.
   • 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 in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC ↗:

     The foe is profligate, and run.

• French: dépensier
• German: verschwenderisch
• Italian: dissoluto
• Russian: неэконо́мный
• Spanish: disoluto

• Italian: dissoluto
• Russian: распу́тный
• Spanish: inmoral

profligate (plural profligates)

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

   Synonyms: wastrel, Thesaurus:spendthrift, Thesaurus:prodigal

• Russian: развра́тник

• Russian: расточи́тель

profligate (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 ;

• profligation