wanton
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwɒntən/
enpr: wän'tən
ipa: /ˈwɑntən/
ipa: /ˈwɒntən/
ipa: /ˈwɒntɒn/
rhymes: -ɒntən
homophone: wonton stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: wantons
form: wantoning
form: wantoned
form: wantoned
Etymology: From Middle English wantoun, wantowen, wantoȝen, wantowe (“uneducated; unrestrained; licentious; sportive; playful”), from wan- (“not, un-, mis-”) + towen, i-towen (“educated”, literally “towed; led; drawn”), from Old English togen, ġetogen, past participle of tēon (“to train, discipline”), equivalent to wan- + towed.
Senses: examples: text: […] We will fetch thee straight / Adonis painted by a running brook, / And Cytherea all in sedges hid, / Which seem to move and wanton with her breath / Even as the waving sedges play wi’ th’ wind.
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act PROLOGUE, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
text: […] Nature here / Wantond as in her prime, and plaid at will / Her Virgin Fancies […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 294-296:
text: 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 […]
ref: 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:
text: As for her soft brown hair, it was free to wanton in the winds, save where a strip of velvet restrained it around her brows.
ref: 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 139:
text: It might well be, said Mrs. McNab, wantoning on with her memories […]
ref: 1927 May, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], →OCLC, page 217:
synonyms: revel
romp
glosses: To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
examples: text: The young man wantoned away his inheritance.
text: [W]ith this money the King shall wanton away his time in pleasures […]
ref: 1660 May 8 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “April 28th, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VIII, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1896, →OCLC, page 290:
text: […] Samson, having wantoned away his strength and paying the penalty […]
ref: 1881, Christina Rossetti, “St. Matthias, Apostle”, in Called to Be Saints, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, page 153:
text: And never would he wanton his cause away with wine.
ref: 1929, “A Song of an Old General”, in Witter Bynner, Jiang Kanghu, transl., The Jade Mountain, New York: Vintage, published 1972, page 203:
text: 1948, Digby George Gerahty (as Robert Standish), Elephant Walk, New York: Macmillan, 1949, Chapter 15, p. 214,
If either of us felt the respect for George that you imply by your manner, you know perfectly well that we wouldn’t have wantoned away the day as we have.
synonyms: lavish
splash out
splurge
throw away
glosses: To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away).
examples: text: Be loving and courteous to your fellow Servants, not gigling or idling out your time, or wantoning in the society of men […]
ref: 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 62:
text: Happy he that ſips Eternally ſuch Nectar dovvn, that unconfin'd may Lave, and VVanton there in ſateleſs Draughts of ever ſpringing Beauty— […]
ref: 1700 (date written), Colley Cibber, Love Makes a Man: Or, The Fop’s Fortune. A Comedy. […], London: […] Richard Parker […], Hugh Newman […], and E. Rumbal […], published 1701, →OCLC, Act II, page 19:
text: […] whole herds or flocks of other women securely, and scarce regarded, traverse the park, the play, the opera, and the assembly; and though, for the most part at least, they are at last devoured, yet for a long time do they wanton in liberty, without disturbance or controul.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: colt
word: rig
word: blissom
word: chamber
word: colt
word: gill
word: harlot
word: harlotize
word: minx
word: rake
word: rig
word: slut
word: trollop
word: wanton
word: wantonize
glosses: To act wantonly; to be lewd or lascivious.
Related terms: wantonly
wantonness
wantonry