profligate
Significado: Recklessly wasteful or extravagant, especially with money or resources. Can also describe a person given to wildly immoral or self-indulgent behaviour.
Profligate is a stronger and more condemnatory word than 'wasteful' or 'extravagant.' It implies not just carelessness but a wilful disregard for the consequences of one's spending or behaviour. In British political discourse, it is a favourite weapon of opposition parties attacking government expenditure. It can function as both an adjective and a noun — 'a profligate' is someone who lives without restraint. The word collocates with 'spending,' 'waste,' 'use,' and 'consumption.'
Ejemplos
- The auditor's report condemned the profligate spending on consultants that had characterised the previous three financial years. 审计报告谴责了过去三个财政年度在顾问方面的挥霍支出。El informe del auditor condenó el gasto pródigo en consultores que había caracterizado los tres ejercicios financieros anteriores.監査報告書は、過去3会計年度にわたるコンサルタントへの放漫な支出を非難した。감사 보고서는 지난 3개 회계연도에 걸쳐 이루어진 컨설턴트에 대한 방만한 지출을 비난했다.
- Environmentalists described the profligate use of single-use plastics as a moral failing of the consumer economy. 环保主义者称一次性塑料的浪费使用是消费经济的道德缺失。Los ecologistas calificaron el uso pródigo de plásticos de un solo uso como un fallo moral de la economía de consumo.環境保護主義者たちは、使い捨てプラスチックの浪費的な使用を消費経済の道徳的欠陥と評した。환경주의자들은 일회용 플라스틱의 낭비적인 사용을 소비 경제의 도덕적 결함이라고 묘사했다.
- He had been a profligate in his youth, burning through a considerable inheritance before his thirtieth birthday. 他年轻时曾是个挥金如土的浪子,在三十岁之前就花光了一笔可观的遗产。Había sido un pródigo en su juventud, dilapidando una herencia considerable antes de cumplir los treinta.彼は若い頃は放蕩者で、30歳になる前にかなりの遺産を使い果たした。그는 젊었을 때 방탕한 사람이었으며, 30세가 되기 전에 상당한 유산을 탕진했다.
Pronunciación
Guía de uso
Contexto: journalism, political, academic
Tono: disapproving
Origen e historia
From Latin profligatus, past participle of profligare (to strike down, to ruin), from pro- (forward) and fligere (to strike). The sense of moral recklessness developed in the 16th century.
Contexto cultural
Era: Modern
Generation: All ages
Social background: Universal
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