Wastrels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who squander their resources or opportunities without care or thought
2. those who lead a life of wastefulness, often neglecting responsibilities or duties
3. persons characterized by a lack of ambition or purpose, resulting in unproductive lifestyles

Etymology: "Wastrels" is the plural of "wastrel," a noun for a reckless spender who squanders money, and it first appears in English in 1847. The word is built from "waste" with the pejorative suffix "-rel," an ending that also shows up in older English words such as "ruffrel" and "vagrel," where it marks a person as worthless or disreputable. The plural form simply refers to more than one such person, so a sentence about a group of spendthrifts uses it in the same way as any ordinary plural noun. Its root, "waste," carries the older sense of wasteful destruction, which explains why the derived noun describes someone who wastes their resources.

Synonyms: profligates, spenders, wasters

Antonyms: savers, investors, thrifty