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vocabulary
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licentious

used in a sentence
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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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