WANTON • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Wanton

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/wˈɔntən/ /wˈɑntən/ Listen

adjective

Wanton adj.

Untrained; undisciplined; unrestrained; hence, loose; free; luxuriant; roving; sportive. "In woods and wanton wilderness." "A wild and wanton herd." "A wanton and a merry (friar)." "(She) her unadorned golden tresses wore Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets waved." "How does your tongue grow wanton in her praise!"

Wandering from moral rectitude; perverse; dissolute. "Men grown wanton by prosperity."

Specifically: Deviating from the rules of chastity; lewd; lustful; lascivious; libidinous; lecherous. "Not with wanton looking of folly." "(Thou art) froward by nature, enemy to peace, Lascivious, wanton."

Reckless; heedless; as, wanton mischief.

noun

Wanton n.

A roving, frolicsome thing; a trifler; used rarely as a term of endearment. "I am afeard you make a wanton of me." "Peace, my wantons; he will do More than you can aim unto."

One brought up without restraint; a pampered pet. "Anything, sir, That's dry and wholesome; I am no bred wanton."

A lewd person; a lascivious man or woman.

verb

Wanton v. t. To cause to become wanton; also, to waste in wantonness. (Obs.)

Wanton v. i. (past & past part. wantoned; pres. part. wantoning)

To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic. "Nature here wantoned as in her prime." "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!"

To sport in lewdness; to play the wanton; to play lasciviously.

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Etymology of 'Wanton'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wanton" Quotes from Famous Books

... also men of enterprise, tempered with prudence, and directed by sound judgment. Ready at all times, to resist and punish the aggression of the Indians, they were scrupulously careful not to provoke them by acts of wanton outrage, such as were then, too frequently committed along the frontier. Col. Ebenezer Zane had been among the first, to explore the country from the South Branch, through the Alleghany glades, and west of them. He ...

— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... women break their marriage vow, it is seldom for any merely frivolous or sordid reason (of course excepting the essentially wanton type, whom no man should be fool enough to marry), but nearly always either because they are under the spell of infatuation for the other man, or because they are utterly miserable in their marriage and seek to drug themselves to forgetfulness or indifference ...

— Modern marriage and how to bear it • Maud Churton Braby

... an outlaw, hey?" shrieked Mr. Luce. The vast injury that had been done him, this ruthless assault on his house, his humiliation in public, and now these wanton taunts, whipped his weak nature into frenzy. Cowards at bay are the savagest foes. Mr. Luce ...

— The Skipper and the Skipped - Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul • Holman Day

... "The fault of your wanton ways," he accused her harshly. "You have so played fast and loose with this fellow Wilding that he makes free of your name in my very presence, and puts upon me the need to get myself killed by him ...

— Mistress Wilding • Rafael Sabatini

... Our wanton accidents take root, and grow To vaunt themselves God's laws, until our clothes, Our gems, and gaudy books, and cushioned litters Become ourselves, and we would fain forget There live who need ...

— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley

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