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/wˈɔntən/ /wˈɑntən/ Listen

adjective

Wanton adj.

Untrained; undisciplined; unrestrained; hence, loose; free; luxuriant; roving; sportive. "In woods and wanton wilderness." "A wild and wanton herd." "A wanton and a merry (friar)." "(She) her unadorned golden tresses wore Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets waved." "How does your tongue grow wanton in her praise!"

Wandering from moral rectitude; perverse; dissolute. "Men grown wanton by prosperity."

Specifically: Deviating from the rules of chastity; lewd; lustful; lascivious; libidinous; lecherous. "Not with wanton looking of folly." "(Thou art) froward by nature, enemy to peace, Lascivious, wanton."

Reckless; heedless; as, wanton mischief.

noun

Wanton n.

A roving, frolicsome thing; a trifler; used rarely as a term of endearment. "I am afeard you make a wanton of me." "Peace, my wantons; he will do More than you can aim unto."

One brought up without restraint; a pampered pet. "Anything, sir, That's dry and wholesome; I am no bred wanton."

A lewd person; a lascivious man or woman.

verb

Wanton v. t. To cause to become wanton; also, to waste in wantonness. (Obs.)

Wanton v. i. (past & past part. wantoned; pres. part. wantoning)

To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic. "Nature here wantoned as in her prime." "How merrily we would sally into the fields, and strip under the first warmth of the sun, and wanton like young dace in the streams!"

To sport in lewdness; to play the wanton; to play lasciviously.

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Etymology of 'Wanton'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wanton" Quotes from Famous Books

... wanton or other!" sneered Marlanx. "But a pretty one, by the gods. Baldos has always shown ...

— Beverly of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... possible, is preferable to revolution, whether in things secular or in things religious. It is always easier to tear down than it is to build up. Nor does anyone, save the anarchist, tear down through wanton love of destruction. Even he is apt to feel called upon to give some sort of a ...

— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton

... Effingham, you have heard this wanton insult," continued Captain Truck, suppressing his wrath as well as he could: "in what mariner ought ...

— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper

... point out any defects and excesses of which Byron was guilty at this period beyond what were common to other fashionable young men of rank and leisure, except a spirit of religious scepticism and impiety, and a wanton and inexcusable recklessness in regard to women, which made him a slave to his passions. The first alienated him, so far as he was known, from the higher respectable classes, who generally were punctilious ...

— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIII • John Lord

... February 5 to the effect that stringent instructions had been given to the British troops to respect private property. 'All wanton destruction or injury to peaceful inhabitants is contrary to British practice and tradition, and will, if necessary, be rigorously repressed by me.' He added that it was an untrue statement that ...

— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle

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