dissolute
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dissolute
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (from Anglo-French ), from Latin dissolūtus (past participle of dissolvere “to dissolve”); see dis- 1, solute
Explanation
The adjective dissolute means unrestrained. If you're a dissolute person, you engage in the kinds of behaviors that cause disapproval. If your mother tells you you're dissolute, she's not trying to be kind. Some kinds of unrestrained behavior are good, like if you're unrestrained by fear, and do something very brave. But someone who is dissolute not only goes against the grain of normal behavior, but is wasteful and offensive — over the limit. If you drop out of school, party all the time, and waste your life, you've chosen a dissolute lifestyle.
Vocabulary lists containing dissolute
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Grade 12, List 6
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"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What is most astonishing in Mr. Ackroyd’s brisk, persuasive account is the gulf—and, eventually, chasm—between the discipline and virtuosity of Auden’s verses and his increasingly dissolute and unhappy personal life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Ian Littleworth’s Happy, the dissolute son always looking for an easy way out, seems unsettled not only in his bearings but in his command of the script.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026
Minutes later, these new friends cross the threshold into George and Martha’s dissolute tempest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
“People wanted to move up to guitar. I don’t know why. I guess Johnny Thunders was cooler,” he adds of the famously dissolute New York Dolls member.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
The dazzle of this fictive childhood—full of swimming pools and orange groves and dissolute, charming show-biz parents—has all but eclipsed the drab original.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
