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Prodigal vs Dissipate - What's the difference?

prodigal | dissipate |

As an adjective prodigal

is wastefully extravagant.

As a noun prodigal

is a prodigal person, a spendthrift.

As a verb dissipate is

to drive away, disperse.

prodigal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • wastefully extravagant.
  • He found himself guilty of prodigal spending during the holidays.
    He is a prodigal son.
  • (often, followed by of or with) someone yielding profusely, lavish
  • She was a merry person, glad and prodigal of smiles.
    How can he be so prodigal with money on such a tight budget?
  • profuse, lavishly abundant
  • returning after abandoning a person, group, or ideal, especially for selfish reasons; being a prodigal son.
  • * '>citation
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * (a prodigal person) frugal

    Derived terms

    * prodigal son

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A prodigal person, a spendthrift.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    dissipate

    English

    Verb

    (dissipat)
  • To drive away, disperse.
  • * Cook
  • I soon dissipated his fears.
  • * Hazlitt
  • The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy.
  • To use up or waste.
  • * Bishop Burnet
  • The vast wealth was in three years dissipated .
  • * 1931 :
  • So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate'"—to ' dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.
  • To vanish by dispersion.