extravagant
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪkˈstɹævəɡənt/
Forms: form: more extravagant
form: most extravagant
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English extravagaunt, from Middle French extravagant and its etymon Medieval Latin extravagans, present participle of extravagor (“to wander beyond”), from Latin extra (“beyond”) + vagor (“to wander, stray”).
Senses: examples: text: The extravagant and erring spirit hies / To his confine.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
synonyms: rangy
vagrant
wandering
glosses: Exceeding the bounds of something; roving; hence, foreign.
examples: text: extravagant acts, praise, or abuse
text: There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in great natural geniuses.
ref: 1711 September 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, September 3, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 160; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
text: The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: immoderate
word: lavish
word: unrestrained
word: excessive
word: extravagant
word: unmeasured
word: unreasonable
word: extreme
word: immoderate
word: intemperate
word: lavish
word: nimious
word: obscene
word: overmuch
word: overweening
word: over the top
word: prodigal
word: undue
word: unrestrained
word: wanton
glosses: Extreme; wild; excessive; unrestrained.
examples: text: According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
synonyms: word: extortionate
word: inordinate
word: disproportionate
word: exorbiant
word: exorbitant
word: extortionable
word: extortionate
word: extortious
word: extravagant
word: inordinate
word: sky-high
word: usurious
glosses: Exorbitant
examples: text: an extravagant man
text: extravagant expense
text: some of the Quakers were extravagant and foolish
ref: 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: profligate
word: squandering
word: extravagant
word: improvident
word: imprudent
word: lavish
word: prodigal
word: profligate
word: reckless
word: spendthrift
word: squandering
word: uneconomical
word: unthrifty
word: wasteful
glosses: Profuse in expenditure; prodigal; wasteful.
Derived terms: extravagancy
extravagantly
extravagantness
overextravagant
unextravagant
Related terms: vagabond
extravagance
extravagation