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Profligate vs Decadent - What's the difference?

profligate | decadent |

As adjectives the difference between profligate and decadent

is that profligate is overthrown, ruined while decadent is characterized by moral or cultural decline.

As nouns the difference between profligate and decadent

is that profligate is an abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person while decadent is a person affected by moral decay.

As a verb profligate

is to drive away; to overcome.

profligate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Overthrown, ruined.
  • * Hudibras
    • The foe is profligate , and run.
  • Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
  • * 2013 , Ben Smith, "[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24503988]", BBC Sport , 19 October 2013:
    • Jay Rodriguez headed over and Dani Osvaldo might have done better with only David De Gea to beat and, as Southampton bordered on the profligate , United were far more ruthless.
  • Immoral; abandoned to vice.
  • * Roscommon
    • a race more profligate than we
  • * Dryden
    • Made prostitute and profligate muse.

    Synonyms

    * (inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly) extravagant, wasteful, prodigal * immoral, licentious * See also

    Derived terms

    * profligateness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
  • An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.

    • Synonyms

    * (overly wasteful or extravagant individual) wastrel * See also and

    Verb

    (profligat)
  • (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
  • * 1840 , Alexander Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity and Divorce , page 157:
    • Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;

    Synonyms

    * overcome

    Related terms

    * profligacy * profligately * profligateness * profligation

    External links

    * * ----

    decadent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Characterized by moral or cultural decline.
  • * - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)
    • As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.
  • Luxuriously self-indulgent.
  • * "
    • Surgery in an opera? How wonderfully decadent ! And just as I was beginning to lose interest!

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person affected by moral decay.

    • Related terms

    * decadence * decay

    Anagrams

    *