profligacy
/profligacy/
Học thuậtThân thiện
A wealthy man's profligacy left him surrounded by empty bottles and unpaid bills.
Definition
- Noun:
- The quality or state of being profligate; reckless extravagance or wastefulness in the use of resources. This refers to the trait of spending money or using resources in a wildly excessive and irresponsible manner.
- Shameless immorality; licentiousness. This refers to dissolute, degenerate, or corrupt behavior, especially involving excessive indulgence in physical pleasures.
Usage and Examples
- Referring to financial wastefulness:
- The company's collapse was due to the profligacy of its management.
- Government profligacy has led to a massive budget deficit.
- Referring to immoral behavior:
- The novel depicts the moral decay and profligacy of the aristocracy.
- He abandoned a life of profligacy and sought redemption.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
- Historical/Formal Context: The term often carries a formal or literary tone and is used to describe behavior on a significant, often ruinous, scale, whether financial or moral.
- Connotation: Strongly negative. It implies not just excess, but a willful disregard for consequences, norms, and often ethics.
Variants and Related Words
- Profligate (adjective): Recklessly extravagant or completely immoral.
- a profligate spender; profligate behavior
- Profligate (noun): A person who is given to profligacy.
- He was known as a profligate who squandered the family fortune.
Synonyms
- Extravagance (specifically for spending)
- Wastefulness
- Prodigality
- Dissipation
- Debauchery (specifically for immoral indulgence)
- Licentiousness
Antonyms
- Frugality
- Thrift
- Prudence
- Temperance
- Restraint
Idioms and Phrases
- A life of profligacy: A common phrase describing a sustained period of reckless and immoral excess.
- He inherited a fortune but lost it all in a life of profligacy.
A wealthy man's profligacy left him surrounded by empty bottles and unpaid bills.
Noun
- dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure
- the trait of spending extravagantly