Sample sentences for GRATUITOUS

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Definition

unnecessary and unwarranted

or less commonly (except where it is common in the legal field): costing nothing

gratuitous = unnecessary and unwarranted

a gratuitous assumption
I found the gore a bit gratuitous, so I looked away for a second, asking Augustus, "How many dead people do you think there are?"
John Green -- The Fault in Our Stars

gratuitous = unnecessary and unwarranted

Folly, folly, his heart kept saying: conscious, gratuitous, suicidal folly.
George Orwell -- 1984

gratuitous = unnecessary and unwarranted

I don't go around gratuitously shooting people and then bragging about it afterward in seedy space-rangers bars,
Douglas Adams -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

gratuitously = unnecessary and unwarranted

But in the humans the Enemy has gratuitously associated affection between the parties with sexual desire.
C.S. Lewis -- The Screwtape Letters

gratuitously = unnecessary and unwarranted

or less commonly (except where it is common in the legal field): costing nothing

If there was one thing about Liesel Meminger, her thieving was not gratuitous.
Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief

gratuitous = unnecessary and unwarranted

Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

gratuitous = unnecessary

...it is most curious to see that you have so much time on your hands that you are able to simply wander about this house bothering others with gratuitous comments.
Kazuo Ishiguro -- The Remains of the Day

gratuitous = unnecessary and unwarranted

Fearless and wicked as they are, they dare not attempt such open and gratuitous cruelty
Scott, Walter -- Ivanhoe
I saw the folly of the enterprise to which I had committed myself—the sheer, gratuitous, unnecessary folly of it.
Hornung, E. W. -- The Amateur Cracksman
Raffles would never have led me into danger so gratuitous and unnecessary, but he followed me into it without a word.
Hornung, E. W. -- A Thief in the Night
The time and the manner of his asking her appeared like a gratuitous insult to me; and I could have wept with pure vexation.
Bronte, Anne -- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
"Dear father," he said sadly, "I wish you would not expose yourself to such gratuitous pain from scoundrels."
Hardy, Thomas -- Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman
The attack must have all the shocking senselessness of gratuitous blasphemy.
Conrad, Joseph -- The Secret Agent
He would never stand there again; it was gratuitous dreariness.
Henry James -- The American
Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo.
Ernest Hemingway -- A Farewell to Arms
... Frankly, I don't care to see them, for I will not be compromised by gratuitous pretrial testimony that can be injurious to my position.
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Ultimatum
I—I got 'em at Ginsberg's," she added gratuitously.
Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman
"Tell him about the gratuitous act, Millie," he said.
John Gardner -- The Sunlight Dialogues

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