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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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