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Don't Get Overwhelmed by the History of Profligate
When a royal record keeper reported the "profligation of the knights" almost five centuries ago, he didn't mean the knights were wildly indulging in excesses; he meant they were thoroughly defeated in battle. There's nothing etymologically extreme there; the Latin verb profligare, which is the root of both profligate and the much rarer profligation (meaning "ruin"), means "to strike down," "to destroy," or "to overwhelm." When the adjective profligate first appeared in print in English it meant "overthrown" or "overwhelmed," (a sense that is now obsolete) but over time the word's meaning shifted to "immoral" or "wildly extravagant."
Synonyms
Examples of profligate in a Sentence
Lance Morrow, Time, 4 Apr. 1988
Sure, the trade deficit symbolizes a profligate America, consuming more than it produces and spending more than it has.
—Philip Revzin, Wall Street Journal, 17 Mar. 17, 1988
Everyone seemed fond of statistics, but the counterterrorism experts were especially profligate with numbers.
—Kurt Andersen, Time, 24 June 1985
She was very profligate in her spending.
profligate movie producers hoping to create the next blockbuster
Noun
"Why did you ask that scoundrel, Rawdon Crawley, to dine?" said the Rector to his lady, as they were walking home through the park. "I don't want the fellow. He looks down upon us country people as so many blackamoors. … Besides, he's such an infernal character—he's a gambler—he's a drunkard—he's a profligate in every way."
—William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848
a profligate who could not really afford the grand style he maintained at Monticello, Jefferson died deeply in debt
a drunken profligate, he was given to wretched excess in every aspect of his life
Amanda Gerut, Fortune Europe, 20 June 2024
The later years of his tenure leading the NRA were marred by scandal — with the pro-gun group accused of profligate spending — and frustrations over falling membership.
—Tim Balk, New York Daily News, 5 Jan. 2024
WSJ, 14 Sep. 2022
Fed up with the profligate practice, dumpster divers like Ms. Sacks have started posting videos of their haul on TikTok in recent years as a way of shaming corporations and raising awareness of the wasteful behavior.
—Steven Kurutz, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2022
See all Example Sentences for profligate 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'profligate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Profligate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profligate. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
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