spendthrift
Americannoun
-
spendthrifts
plural
adjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spendthrift
Explanation
A spendthrift person is reckless and wasteful with his money. If you're a spendthrift, you might find yourself in debt. However, it might be fun to have a spendthrift friend who likes to treat you to expensive lunches and lavish gifts. Spendthrift was created by sticking two opposite words together: spend and thrift, which means “savings, wealth.” So a spendthrift spends all of his savings. Spendthrift people are the worst nightmare of retirement planners and Scrooges all over the globe. So unless you want to be called a spendthrift, think twice about your next purchase.
Vocabulary lists containing spendthrift
The Catcher in the Rye
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A Doll's House
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Intermediate, List 9
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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.
See Examples For:
Yardeni Research President Ed Yardeni said Thursday that the results offer the “latest evidence that consumers have continued their spendthrift ways.”
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
A special-needs trust is similar to a spendthrift trust in that it’s also irrevocable and protected against creditors.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
No one today any longer wishes to hear jokes about nagging mothers-in-law, spendthrift wives or old jalopies, and the men and women who once told them to hardy plaudits are now forgotten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Trusts also allow you to put restrictions on how money is spent, which can be important if your heir is a minor child, a spendthrift or someone reliant on public benefits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2024
At the same time he was more of a carouser and spendthrift than ever.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I will uphold his wishes, but if I outlive him and there’s no agreement in place, I would likely give little to nothing to his children because they are irresponsible spendthrifts.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
Two curmudgeonly old rivals, reclusive spendthrifts, are marching toward a showdown that a lot of people really wish wasn’t happening.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
For many spendthrifts, these platforms are not a mentally safe space.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2021
The reason massive stars are such spendthrifts is that, as we saw above, the rate of fusion depends very strongly on the star’s core temperature.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
He was wondering what would have happened to the dear old stately place if he had died a month ago, and it had fallen into the hands of those two spendthrifts, Archie and his father.
From Diana Tempest, Volume II (of 3) by Mary Cholmondeley
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
