6 uses
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Definition
unnecessary and unwarranted
or less commonly (except where it is common in the legal field): costing nothing
or less commonly (except where it is common in the legal field): costing nothing
- Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.Book 1 — Miss Brooke (67% in)
- It was not Mr. Bambridge's weakness to be a gratuitous flatterer.Book 3 — Waiting for Death (11% in)
- But this ill-tempered anticipation that she could desire visits which might be disagreeable to her husband, this gratuitous defence of himself against selfish complaint on her part, was too sharp a sting to be meditated on until after it had been resented.Book 3 — Waiting for Death (60% in)
- Lydgate had often been satirical on this gratuitous prediction, and he meant now to be guarded.Book 3 — Waiting for Death (65% in)
- Even the rumor of Reform had not yet excited any millennial expectations in Frick, there being no definite promise in it, as of gratuitous grains to fatten Hiram Ford's pig, or of a publican at the "Weights and Scales" who would brew beer for nothing, or of an offer on the part of the three neighboring farmers to raise wages during winter.Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (18% in)
- It was understood from the beginning that my services would be gratuitous.Book 7 — Two Temptations (12% in)
There are no more uses of "gratuitous" in Middlemarch.
Typical Usage
(best examples)