thriftless
Americanadjective
-
without thrift; improvident; wasteful.
-
Archaic. useless or pointless.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of thriftless
Explanation
Someone who is thriftless is careless about spending and saving their money. If you spend all of your allowance on candy, week after week, you are thriftless. The adjective thriftless is the opposite of thrifty. When you're thrifty, you possess the quality of thrift, which means being careful about saving money and other resources. When you're thriftless, you lack this habit of thrift; you can see this in the suffix -less, which means "lacking." The good news is that you can cure yourself of being thriftless by getting in the habit of saving at least as much as you spend.
Vocabulary lists containing thriftless
"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 2
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Novel Study: Macbeth, Acts 1–2
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Utopia
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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.
“I was in Albuquerque and it rained every day but no one collected the water,” one woman said in a scandalised tone, deflecting shame on to thriftless New Mexicans.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 15, 2015
Nothing can pry them away from that; the City is what they want it to be: thriftless, warm, scary and full of amiable strangers.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
It was thriftless, arbitrary, and lacking in continuity of policy, yet not tyrannical or cruel.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5 English History by Various
I know you of old: you would have a rouse with that thriftless babe my husband.
From Rob of the Bowl, Vol. I (of 2) A Legend of St. Inigoe's by Kennedy, John P.
The weeds do choke the thriftless fields, No profit now the harvest yields; Honey is sought, but only gall Is found, for still the prices fall.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 105, July 15th 1893 by Various
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.
