All 5 Uses of
wanton
in
Love's Labour's Lost
- Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all; And, among three, to love the worst of all, A wightly wanton with a velvet brow, With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes; Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed, Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard: And I to sigh for her!†
Scene 3.1
- rimes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Disfigure not his slop.†
Scene 4.3 *
- Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air: Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen, 'gan passage find; That the lover, sick to death, Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.†
Scene 4.3
- The blood of youth burns not with such excess As gravity's revolt to wantonness.†
Scene 5.2
- Your beauty, ladies, Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours Even to the opposed end of our intents; And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,— As love is full of unbefitting strains; All wanton as a child, skipping and vain; Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye, Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms, Varying in subjects, as the eye doth roll To every varied object in his glance: Which parti-coated presence of loose love Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes, Have misbecom'd our oaths and gravities, Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults Suggested us to make.†
Scene 5.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(wanton) of something considered bad: excessive, thoughtless indulgence -- such as waste, cruelty, violence, and (especially in the past) sexual promiscuity
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) In classic literature, wanton can also describe people who are playful or plants that are growing profusely.