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wanton
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  • •
    As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.  (source)
    wanton = of something considered bad:  excessive, thoughtless indulgence -- such as cruelty or violence
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    They got back into the truck and continued the patrol, past the Hickey house, empty, door open, windows wantonly smashed.  (source)
    wantonly = in a bad (thoughtlessly violent and wasteful) manner
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    "Oh, it sounds very exciting!" said Bobby's guest, and waited, wantonly, for me to slip her my Montreal address under the table.  (source)
    wantonly = in a sexually promiscuous manner
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    ...elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households;  (source)
    wanton = improper sexually suggestive
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    He had swept it out of existence, as it seemed, without any provocation, as a boy might crush an ant hill, in the mere wantonness of power.  (source)
    wantonness = something excessively bad
    standard suffix: 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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    -all wantonly raiding a great man's flocks, dishonoring his queen, because they thought he'd come no more.  (source)
    wantonly = deliberately and in a bad way
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    Then among them glided like a pure ray, like a Christian angel in the midst of Olympus, one of those chaste figures, those calm shadows, those soft visions, which seemed to veil its virgin brow before these marble wantons.†  (source)
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    His thin black hair, fine spun, was fanned lightly from its elegance by a wantoning breeze.†  (source)
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    As the goats, That late have skipp'd and wanton'd rapidly Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta'en Their supper on the herb, now silent lie And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown, While noonday rages; and the goatherd leans Upon his staff, and leaning watches them: And as the swain, that lodges out all night In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey Disperse them; even so all three abode, I as a goat and as the shepherds they, Close pent on either side by shelving rock.†  (source)
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    Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh, And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm; A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet, Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.†  (source)
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    Whether Fortune, who now and then shows some compassion in her wantonest tricks, might not take pity of the squire; and, as she had determined not to let him overtake his daughter, might not resolve to make him amends some other way, I will not assert; but he had hardly uttered the words just before commemorated, and two or three oaths at their heels, when a pack of hounds began to open their melodious throats at a small distance from them, which the squire's horse and his rider both perceiving, both immediately pricked up their ears, and the squire, crying, "She's gone, she's gone!†  (source)
    wantonest = most wanton
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    There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.  (source)
    wanton = excessive, thoughtless indulgence
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    "Flung from this earth by my own wantonness!" she cried just as her husband dashed back home, shouting, "Thief!†  (source)
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