Adjective

(en adjective)

(originally) Rearing on both hind legs with the forelegs extended.

* The Vienna riding school displays splendid rampant movement.

(heraldry) Rearing on its hind leg(s), with a foreleg raised and in profile.

* Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved

little pieces of moustache on his upper lip, like a pair of minnows rampant

(architecture) Tilted, said of an arch with one side higher than the other, or a vault whose two abutments are located on an inclined plane.

Unrestrained or unchecked, usually in a negative manner.

* Weeds are rampant in any neglected garden.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant , killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.}}

* 2013 , Phil McNulty, " Man City 4-1 Man Utd", BBC Sport , 22 September 2013:

In contrast to the despair of his opposite number, it was a day of delight for new City boss Manuel Pellegrini as he watched the rampant Blues make a powerful statement about their Premier League ambitions.

Rife, or occurring widely, frequently or menacingly.

* There was rampant corruption in the city.

Adjective

(er)

* 1623 , (William Shakespeare), First Folio, The Merchant of Venice :

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

* 1644 , (John Milton), Aeropagitica :

Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomack differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to occasions of evill.

* (rfdate) Udall:

Such as be intemperant, that is, followers of their naughty appetites and lusts.

(obsolete) Bad, worthless, substandard.

* (rfdate) American King James Bible, Jeremiah 24:2:

One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child).

Some naughty boys at school hid the teacher's lesson notes.

Immoral]], sexually provocative; now in weakened sense, [[risqué, cheeky.

I bought some naughty lingerie for my honeymoon.

If I see you send another naughty email to your friends, you will be forbidden from using the computer!