toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

prodigal
used in a sentence

(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition recklessly wasteful

or more rarely:

abundant (extravagant in amount)

or more rarely still:

long absent (someone who has been away a long time)

More rarely, prodigal is used as a noun as a shortened version of prodigal son to reference someone who is wasteful like the prodigal son in the famous Christian parable.  When the prodigal son came home and apologized for his wasteful and ungrateful ways, his father forgave him, loved him, and celebrated the return.
  • The rainforest is filled with a prodigal variety of vegetation.
prodigal = abundant (many, many kinds)
  • prodigal in their expenditures
  • She suggested, it seemed to Mr Pickering, the prodigal daughter revisiting the old homestead.
    Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville  --  Uneasy Money
  • They were immersed in a sea of wanton, prodigal vegetation.
    London, Jack  --  Adventure
  • He was the father embracing his prodigal child.
    Ted Dekker  --  BoneMan's Daughters
    • prodigal = referring to the person, in the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son
  • I trust you will be a good husband of your money; but in the affair of a friend like Mr. Thompson, I would be even prodigal.
    Robert Louis Stevenson  --  Kidnapped
    • prodigal = recklessly wasteful (in spending)
  • My noble gossips, ye have been too prodigal.
    William Shakespeare  --  Henry VIII
    • prodigal = recklessly extravagant in amount
  • For my own part, I regretted your alliance with my brother-in-law's family, which has always been of prodigal habits,
    George Eliot  --  Middlemarch
    • prodigal = recklessly wasteful
  • 'tis painted about with the story of the Prodigal,
    William Shakespeare  --  The Merry Wives of Windsor
    • prodigal = the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son
  • I'll pay him now; you'll be too prodigal.
    Ben Jonson  --  Volpone
    • prodigal = wasteful
  • Stephen looked at the English convert with the same eyes as the elder brother in the parable may have turned on the prodigal.
    James Joyce  --  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
    • prodigal = the person, in the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son
  • its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
    Walt Whitman  --  Leaves of Grass
    • prodigal = abundant
  • And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rimes,
    William Shakespeare  --  Love's Labour's Lost
    • prodigal = abundant (extravagant in amount)
  • Myself a prodigal I'll prove,
    Miguel de Cervantes  --  Don Quixote
    • prodigal = recklessly wasteful
  • ...he that goes in the calf's skin that was killed for the Prodigal;
    William Shakespeare  --  The Comedy of Errors
    • prodigal = the person, in the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son
  • I'll find a way back to the company of my family. They have to forgive me, fold me in. Prodigal daughter, kill the fatted lamb. The image comforts me.
    Ellen Hopkins  --  Glass
    • prodigal = referring to the person, in the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son
  • a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto;
    William Shakespeare  --  The Merchant of Venice
    • prodigal = someone who is recklessly wasteful
  • Two thousand pounds sacrificed!  He's as prodigal as a thief!
    Jules Verne  --  Around the World in 80 Days
    • prodigal = recklessly wasteful
  • Have you found the prodigal?
    Alan Paton  --  Cry, the Beloved Country
    • prodigal = long absent (someone who has been away a long time)
  • the story of the Prodigal
    William Shakespeare  --  Henry IV, Part 2
prodigal = the commonly referenced Christian parable, The Prodigal Son

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®
Search for other examples by interest
Interest — Source
General — Google News®
General — Time® Magazine
General — Twitter®