Prodigal

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prodigal \Prod"i*gal\, n.
     One who expends money extravagantly, viciously, or without
     necessity; one that is profuse or lavish in any expenditure;
     a waster; a spendthrift. "Noble prodigals of life." --Trench.
     [1913 Webster]



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prodigal \Prod"i*gal\, a. [L. prodigus, from prodigere to drive
     forth, to squander away; pro forward, forth + agere to drive;
     cf. F. prodigue. See {Agent}. ]
     Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other
     things without necessity; recklessly or viciously profuse;
     lavish; wasteful; not frugal or economical; as, a prodigal
     man; the prodigal son; prodigal giving; prodigal expenses.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           In fighting fields [patriots] were prodigal of blood.
                                                    --Dryden.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Profuse; lavish; extravagant; squandering; wasteful. See
          {Profuse}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prodigal
       adj 1: very generous; "distributed gifts with a lavish hand"; "the
              critics were lavish in their praise"; "a munificent
              gift"; "his father gave him a half-dollar and his
              mother a quarter and he thought them munificent";
              "prodigal praise"; "unsparing generosity"; "his
              unstinted devotion"; "called for unstinting aid to
              Britain" [syn: {lavish}, {munificent}, {overgenerous},
               {too-generous}, {unsparing}, {unstinted}, {unstinting}]
       2: recklessly wasteful; "prodigal in their expenditures" [syn:
          {extravagant}, {profligate}, {spendthrift}]
       3: marked by rash extravagance; "led a prodigal life"
       n : a recklessly extravagant consumer [syn: {profligate}, {squanderer}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  208 Moby Thesaurus words for "prodigal":
     Adamic, abounding, abundant, affluent, aggrandized, alive with,
     all-sufficing, ample, amplified, aplenty, backsliding, ballyhooed,
     bibulous, big-time spender, bottomless, bounteous, bountiful,
     bristling, bursting, carnal, copious, crapulent, crapulous,
     crawling, crowded, crowding, diffuse, diffusive, disproportionate,
     dissipative, easy come, easy go, effuse, effusive, epidemic,
     erring, exaggerated, excessive, exhaustless, exorbitant,
     extravagant, extreme, exuberant, fallen, fat, fecund, fertile,
     fleshly, flush, formless, frail, full, galore, generous,
     gluttonous, grandiloquent, gushing, gushy, high-flown, hyperbolic,
     immoderate, improvident, impure, in plenty, in profusion,
     in quantity, incontinent, indulgent, inexhaustible, infirm,
     inflated, inordinate, intemperate, jam-packed, jammed, lapsed,
     lavish, liberal, lush, luxuriant, magnified, many, maximal, much,
     numerous, of easy virtue, opulent, overabundant, overbounteous,
     overcopious, overdone, overdrawn, overemphasized, overemphatic,
     overestimated, overexuberant, overflowing, overgenerous, overgreat,
     overindulgent, overindulging, overlarge, overlavish, overliberal,
     overluxuriant, overmuch, overnumerous, overplenteous,
     overplentiful, overplenty, overpopulated, overpopulous,
     overpraised, overprolific, oversold, overstated, overstressed,
     overwrought, packed, peccable, penny-wise and pound-foolish,
     plenitudinous, plenteous, plentiful, plenty, pleonastic, plethoric,
     populous, postlapsarian, pound-foolish, prevailing, prevalent,
     prodigal son, productive, profligate, profuse, profusive,
     proliferating, prolific, puffed, pullulating, rampant, recidivist,
     recidivistic, reckless, redundant, reiterative, repetitive,
     replete, rich, rife, riotous, running over, self-indulgent,
     spend-all, spender, spendthrift, squanderer, squandering,
     stretched, studded, sumptuous, superabundant, superlative,
     swarming, swinish, tautologous, teeming, thick, thick as hail,
     thick with, thick-coming, thriving, thronged, thronging, too much,
     touted, unangelic, unbridled, unchaste, unclean, unconstrained,
     uncontrolled, undisciplined, unfrugal, ungodly, ungood, unlimited,
     unmeasured, unrestrained, unrighteous, unsaintly, unthrifty,
     unvirtuous, virtueless, wanton, wasteful, waster, wastethrift,
     wastrel, wayward, weak, wealthy, well-found, well-furnished,
     well-provided, well-stocked, wholesale
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PRODIGAL, civil law, persons. Prodigals were persons who, though of full 
  age, were incapable of managing their affairs, and of the obligations which 
  attended them, in consequence of their bad conduct, and for whom a curator 
  was therefore appointed. 
       2. In Pennsylvania, by act of assembly, an habitual drunkard is 
  deprived of the management of his affairs, when he wastes his property, and 
  his estate is placed in the bands of a committee.