Sample sentences for LICENTIOUS

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Definition

inappropriate sexual behavior — especially in public behavior

He even launched into an ethnographic digression: the German was vapourish, the French woman licentious, the Italian passionate.
Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary

And soon we found that the queen for whom the place was named was the licentious old Cyprian one.
Saul Bellow -- The Adventures of Augie March
Did the schools recruit for Christianity or promote Western-style licentiousness? these men wanted to know.
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin -- Three Cups of Tea

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

Attempts have been made by some governments to protect the morality of nations by prohibiting licentious books.
Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1
It was a peculiar combination of old-maidishness and licentiousness that made Cutter seem so despicable.
Willa Cather -- My Antonia

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

— But upon my honour, there seems no limits to the licentiousness of that woman's tongue!"
Jane Austen -- Emma

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

Nately's father was a sober, philosophical and responsible man; this old man was fickle and licentious.
Joseph Heller -- Catch-22
OK," I said, staring with licentious abandon at Theresa's photograph.
Pat Conroy -- The Lords of Discipline
Lust and licentiousness, the cravings of the flesh-
Stephen King -- Carrie

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

We have all manner of licentious people in the village!
Arthur Miller -- The Crucible
The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear.
Harriet Jacobs -- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

They stopped to look at her, laughing, and began jesting with unbridled licentiousness.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Brothers Karamazov

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

HENRY (A pause, during which the music fades to silence) What else but a fool to live in a Court, in a licentious mob—when I have friends, with gardens.
Robert Bolt -- A Man for All Seasons
He had also a wish to establish himself in the good graces of the lady; for John was at least as licentious in his pleasures as profligate in his ambition.
Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe
The distinction between a well regulated army and a mob is the good order and discipline of the first, and the licentious and disorderly behavior of the latter.
David G. McCullough -- 1776
But if I thought to draw him on more gently by this device, I did not think of subjecting the girl to the licentiousness and brutality of so old a hand as you.
Charles Dickens -- Nicholas Nickleby

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

The general tone of this work is light, and often licentious, forming a perfect contrast to the solemn style of the works published at the same period in New England.
Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 2
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick, Should'st thou but hear I were licentious, And that this body, consecrate to thee, By ruffian lust should be contaminate!
William Shakespeare -- The Comedy of Errors
Now, Sir, 'added he, 'can God be honoured in such an unlawful liberty as this; how can a blessing succeed to the best endeavours, if men are allowed to live in so licentious a way?"
Daniel Defoe -- Robinson Crusoe
My mind shudders when I think of her awful, awful situation, and that, near as she is to the grave, she should be so given up to vanity, licentiousness, profaneness, and folly.
William Makepeace Thackeray -- Vanity Fair

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

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licentious