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dissolute

dissolute

3 8.8
A person who lives in a wild way and ignores rules about right and wrong
  • adjective
  • /ˈdɪsəˌluːt/
  • Formal
translation icon : disoluto
  • But you're idle, dissolute and unprincipled.
  • a dissolute way of life

But it sort of does feel like this the proper shambolic, dissolute end to a campaign that really never should have been.

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Examples

  • Kevin Spacey plays a philosophy professor—broken, bitter, dissolute—in The Life of David Gale (2003).

    Academic text (2007)
  • He's become dissolute.

  • The various cars that left her house late at night made him see her as dissolute.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • The religious life was a bulwark against the dissolute life.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I'd heard enough about those dissolute playboys.

  • I can't understand how someone whose instincts are so generous... could lead such a dissolute life.

  • The vast, dissolute city was for me a wasteland, the refuge of my pleasures.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • When the father unlocked the door three days later, his family tumbled out, dissolute and overcome with hilarity.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • "No good, any of them—immoral, dissolute, and hopelessly vulgar!"

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Many critics described the artist's behavior as dissolute, often indulging in reckless parties and excess.

Synonyms

fast
vsdissolute
  • Offensive
38 7.7

Behaving in a way that ignores social rules about sex

applies to immoral or wild living generally rather than sexual focus
degenerate
vsdissolute
  • Offensive
35 8.0

Not following normal moral rules and behaving badly

is about lacking restraint and living in an immoral or wild way
profligate
vsdissolute
  • Formal
8 9.6

Spends money or uses resources wastefully and shows little care about right and wrong

highlights immoral or wild living rather than chiefly wasteful spending
riotous
vsdissolute
3 7.5

Behaving in a wild way that breaks social rules

focuses on lack of moral restraint and lifestyle rather than loud actions
libertine
vsdissolute
  • NSFW
2 9.6

Showing no concern for moral rules, especially about sex

is broader, covering immoral or wild living beyond sexual matters
debauched
vsdissolute
  • NSFW
2 8.7

Living in a way that enjoys a lot of sex and other pleasures without caring what is right

is the broader state of lacking moral restraint in life
dissipated
vsdissolute
8.6

A person who spends health and money on pleasure without self control

is about general lack of moral restraint and wild living
degraded
vsdissolute
5.5

Behaving in a way that ignores moral rules

means lack of moral restraint and wild living rather than lowered status

Antonyms

3.7

Concerned with ideas of right and wrong in people's actions

35 4.3

Being morally good and doing what is right

14 7.4

Not having sex, often for religious or moral reasons

How Dissolute

depraved
  • Formal
48 7.8
dissolute
  • Formal
3 8.8
improper
100 4.1
respectable
114 3.0
upright
15 4.0

Surface Forms

dissolute positive
dissoluter comparative
dissolutest superlative

Morphology

dissolute = solute (opaque) = dis + solute

Although historically analyzable as dis- + solute, the prefix is not the productive negative 'dis-' in this word and modern English 'solute' usually refers to a dissolved substance, so the moral sense 'lacking restraint' is not derivable by learners.

Etymology

Dissolute comes from the Latin dissolutus, meaning 'loosened', made from dis- ('apart') and solvere ('to loosen'). It shares the same root as dissolve and solve, so a dissolute person is like someone 'loosened' from rules, living wildly and without moral control.