wanton
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Base: towed
Affixes: wan-
Inflected forms:
form: more wanton
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: wantoner
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most wanton
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: wantonest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: wantons
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: wantons
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wantoning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wantoned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wantoned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Undisciplined, unruly; not able to be controlled.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: As Flies to wanton Boyes are we to th' Gods, / They kill us for their sport.
'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.
gloss: Playful, sportive; merry or carefree.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: The grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety, which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind.
gloss: Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste.
pos: adj
examples: if wenches will hang out lures for fellows, it is no matter what they suffer: I detest such creatures; and it would be much better for them that their faces had been seamed with the smallpox: but I must confess I never saw any of this wanton behaviour in poor Jenny [...].
I know I ought never to have dreamt of sending that valentine—forgive me, sir—it was a wanton thing which no woman with any self-respect should have done.
People should not marry too young, because, if they do, the children will be weak and female, the wives will become wanton, and the husbands stunted in their growth.
gloss: Capricious, reckless of morality, justice etc.; acting without regard for the law or the well-being of others; gratuitous.
pos: adj
examples: Edward himself, now thoroughly enlightened on her character, had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost meanness of wanton ill-nature.
Several cases of serious wanton damage have occurred on the new electric trains on the Manchester-Bury line of the London Midland Region during recent weeks.
these developments in Gaza are a consequence of the state of siege that the tiny territory has been under – a society that has been fenced-in, starved, and seen its very fabric torn apart by unemployment and wanton military destruction.
gloss: Extravagant, unrestrained, excessive.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: the market price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to animate more or less the eagerness of the competition.
But do not think it argues change of temper since I wrote the Frère review, or a wanton praise of one man and blame of another.
gloss: A pampered or coddled person.
pos: noun
examples: I would have thee gone — / And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, / That lets it hop a little from her hand, / Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, / And with a silken thread plucks it back again[…]
gloss: An overly playful person; a trifler.
pos: noun
examples: you but dally, / I pray you passe with your best violence, / I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
Peace, my wantons; he will do / More than you can aim unto.
This quiet remark serves to remind one, among other things that, Dickens was not without his reasons for a spirit of distrust towards religion by law established, as well as towards sundry other forms of religion--the spirit which, especially in his early career, was often misunderstood as hostility to religion in itself, a wanton mocking at sacred things.
gloss: A self-indulgent person, fond of excess.
pos: noun
gloss: A lewd or immoral person, especially a prostitute.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: ...paints with tremendous force the adulteries of the two wantons Aholah and Aholibah, Israel and Judah, and their love of strangers...
However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie—did actually solicit me, did actually say ‘coming home to-night, dearie’ and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.
gloss: To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: […] 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.
[…] Nature here / Wantond as in her prime, and plaid at will / Her Virgin Fancies […]
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 […]
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.
It might well be, said Mrs. McNab, wantoning on with her memories […]
gloss: To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The young man wantoned away his inheritance.
[W]ith this money the King shall wanton away his time in pleasures […]
[…] Samson, having wantoned away his strength and paying the penalty […]
And never would he wanton his cause away with wine.
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.
gloss: To act wantonly; to be lewd or lascivious.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Be loving and courteous to your fellow Servants, not gigling or idling out your time, or wantoning in the society of men […]
Happy he that ſips Eternally ſuch Nectar dovvn, that unconfin'd may Lave, and VVanton there in ſateleſs Draughts of ever ſpringing Beauty— […]
[…] 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.
Synonyms: anarchic
anarchical
bratty
chaotic
difficult
dionysiac
dionysian
disciplineless
fractious
governless
gung ho
indisciplined
irrepressible
lawless
loose-handed
rampant
rantipole
reinless
stanchless
unbridled
unchecked
uncontrolled
uncontrollable
undisciplined
ungovernable
ungoverned
uninhibited
unreined
unrestrained
unruly
untoward
unvanquished
out of control
out of joint
wanton
wild
Antonyms: apollonian
constrained
disciplined
inhibited
repressible
restrained
ruly
under control
orderly
Related words: libidinous
maenadic
enthusiastic
libertine
obstinate
wantonly
wantonness
wantonry
Derived words: wag-wanton
wanton kittens make sober cats
witwanton
Translations: