WANTON • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Wanton

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/wˈɔntən/ /wˈɑntən/ Listen

adjective

Wanton adj.

Untrained; undisciplined; unrestrained; hence, loose; free; luxuriant; roving; sportive. "In woods and wanton wilderness." "A wild and wanton herd." "A wanton and a merry (friar)." "(She) her unadorned golden tresses wore Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets waved." "How does your tongue grow wanton in her praise!"

Wandering from moral rectitude; perverse; dissolute. "Men grown wanton by prosperity."

Specifically: Deviating from the rules of chastity; lewd; lustful; lascivious; libidinous; lecherous. "Not with wanton looking of folly." "(Thou art) froward by nature, enemy to peace, Lascivious, wanton."

Reckless; heedless; as, wanton mischief.

noun

Wanton n.

A roving, frolicsome thing; a trifler; used rarely as a term of endearment. "I am afeard you make a wanton of me." "Peace, my wantons; he will do More than you can aim unto."

One brought up without restraint; a pampered pet. "Anything, sir, That's dry and wholesome; I am no bred wanton."

A lewd person; a lascivious man or woman.

verb

Wanton v. t. To cause to become wanton; also, to waste in wantonness. (Obs.)

Wanton v. i. (past & past part. wantoned; pres. part. wantoning)

To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic. "Nature here wantoned as in her prime." "How merrily we would sally into the fields, and strip under the first warmth of the sun, and wanton like young dace in the streams!"

To sport in lewdness; to play the wanton; to play lasciviously.

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Etymology of 'Wanton'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wanton" Quotes from Famous Books

... cases of prisoners surrendering and being instantly shot; nor did civilians complain of any wanton looting of the occupied premises, though at Jacobs's and Boland's full use was made of the stores; nor were there any of the Volunteers found drunk. Certainly they should have prevented looting, but it was a duty as much ...

— Six days of the Irish Republic - A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics • Louis Redmond-Howard

... expected perquisite; and so the dead Jew remained exposed his full time. Few excepting those of the true faith ventured to approach the spot, fearful that the Mohamedan authorities would, in their wanton propensities to heap insults upon the Giaours, oblige some one of them to carry the carcass to the place of burial; and thus the horrid and disgusting object was left abandoned to itself, and this had ...

— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier

... for the third, Laertes: you but dally; I pray you, pass with your best violence; I am afeard you make a wanton of me. ...

— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley

... death to venture within their limits, and equally fatal to displease them. So well convinced are the people of my nation of their power to inflict an instant and dreadful death on all, that no temptation can induce them to betray their secret recesses to the wanton stranger. They well know that, if they do so, they shall be exposed to the unceasing attacks of all the inferior species of snakes who love their kings, which are these Bright Old Inhabitants, and know by instinct those who ...

— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... Wanton, mutual annihilation inevitable: so long as a single polis wished to exist—its envy for everything superior to itself, its cupidity, the disorder of its customs, the enslavement of the women, lack of conscience ...

— We Philologists, Volume 8 (of 18) • Friedrich Nietzsche

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