Profligating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Using money, time, or materials in an irresponsible and extravagant way that leads to depletion or loss
2. Spending or consuming resources with excessive carelessness or lack of restraint, often causing harm
3. Engaging in lavish or wasteful behavior that depletes assets or opportunities without consideration

Etymology: "Profligating" is the present participle of "profligate", which is the form that carries the sense of spending money recklessly. The adjective "profligate" arrived in English around 1535, and the verb followed around 1542. Both come from Latin "prōflīgātus", the past participle of "prōflīgō", meaning "to strike down" or "cast down". The Latin word combines "prō-", meaning "forward", with "flīgō", meaning "to strike" or "dash". The sense of the root is physical and violent: to knock something flat or dash it to the ground. English moved that image of overthrow toward moral ruin, so that a profligate person was one cast down into vice and dissolute living. Spending money recklessly grew out of that broader sense of wasteful, ruined excess, which is why the verb now describes squandering cash rather than striking anyone down.

Synonyms: squandering, wasting, dissipating, lavishing, extravagating

Antonyms: saving, conserving, budgeting, economizing, thrifting