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Webster 1913 Edition


Wantonness

Wan′ton-ness

,
Noun.
The quality or state of being wanton; negligence of restraint; sportiveness; recklessness; lasciviousness.
Gower.
The tumults threatened to abuse all acts of grace, and turn them into
wantonness
.
Eikon Basilike.
Young gentlemen would be as sad as night
Only for
wantonness
.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition


Wantonness

WANTONNESS

,
Noun.
1.
Sportiveness; gaiety; frolicsomeness; waggery.
--As sad as night, only for wantonness.
2.
Licentiousness; negligence of restraint.
The tumults threatened to abuse all acts of grace, and turn them into wantonness.
3.
Lasciviousness; lewdness. Romans 8. II Peter 2.

Definition 2024


wantonness

wantonness

English

Noun

wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)

  1. (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being wanton; recklessness, especially as represented in lascivious or other excessive behavior.
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, ch. 16,
      The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.
  2. (countable, dated) A particular wanton act.
    • 1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, Little Brown (Boston), v. 3, p. 366,
      These were simply the wantonnesses of a dishonest man.