dissipated

American  

[dis-uh-pey-tid] / ˈdɪs əˌpeɪ tɪd /

adjective

1. indulging in or characterized by excessive devotion to pleasure; intemperate; dissolute.

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dissipated British  

/ ˈdɪsɪˌpeɪtɪd /

adjective

1. indulging without restraint in the pursuit of pleasure; debauched

2. wasted, scattered, or exhausted

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Other Word Forms

• dissipatedly
  adverb
• dissipatedness
  noun
• nondissipated
  adjective
• nondissipatedly
  adverb
• nondissipatedness
  noun
• undissipated
  adjective
• well-dissipated
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of dissipated

First recorded in 1600–10; dissipate + -ed ²

Explanation

If your Great Aunt Maude tells you you've become a dissipated bum, she means you don't think of anything but how much fun you're having. If you got a summer job and stopped playing arcade games all day, she might change her tune. The adjective dissipated is used to describe people who've lost their moral center, and instead of following the rules of conventional morals, prefer to be utterly self-indulgent. The word comes from the verb dissipate, which means "to disperse," but as an adjective it's always used for people who've gone wrong in some way. If you really want to lay into someone, use these synonyms and call him a "dissipated, dissolute, debauched, degenerate jerk."

Example Sentences

Dissipated Broker Harley Longstreet, to celebrate his engagement to Cherry Browne, gives a party at a New York Hotel.

From Time Magazine Archive

And indeed there is a great Disparity betwixt the Operations of the several Agents whereby the Parts of a Body come to be Dissipated.

From The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject. by Boyle, Robert

Dissipated would perhaps be too strong a word.

From The Island Mystery by Birmingham, George A.

Dissipated into thin air, dissolved like an empty pageant, not leaving a trace behind.

From The Alternative: A Separate Nationality, or The Africanization of the South by Holcombe, William Henry

Dissipated as he was in those days, he engineered some brilliant _coups_ which benefited his concern and increased his own prestige, to his material advantage.

From The Lash by Lyman, Olin L.