Showing results for "dissipated"

• past participle of dissipate.
• past tense form of dissipate.

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

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

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

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

I look for the Dissipated in public, where, amidst their licentiousness, I check them; I pursue the Unhappy in private, where I counsel and endeavour to assist them.

From Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 3 by Burney, Fanny

"I beg your pardon, I'm sure, but I'm very short-sighted——" Dissipated Stranger.

From Mr. Punch's Cockney Humour by Various

Dear Sir: I invite your attention to enclosed circular for a proposed Home for Dissipated and Anonymous Gold-Miners.

From Two Men of Sandy Bar; a drama by Harte, Bret