Licentious

Word LICENTIOUS
Character 10
Hyphenation li cen tious
Pronunciations N/A

Definitions and meanings of "Licentious"

What do we mean by licentious?

Lacking moral restraint, especially in sexual conduct. adjective

Ignoring accepted rules or standards, as of prescriptive grammar. adjective

Characterized by or using license; marked by or indulging too great freedom; overpassing due bounds or limits; excessive.

Specifically Unrestrained by law, religion, or morality; wanton; loose; dissolute; libidinous: as, a licentions person; licentious desires.

Synonyms Profligate, dissolute, debauched. See list under lascivious.

Characterized by license; passing due bounds; excessive; abusive of freedom; wantonly offensive. adjective

Unrestrained by law or morality; lawless; immoral; dissolute; lewd; lascivious adjective

Lacking restraint, or ignoring societal standards, particularly in sexual conduct. adjective

Disregarding accepted rules. adjective

Lacking moral discipline; especially sexually unrestrained adjective

Lacking restraint, or ignoring societal standards, particularly in sexual conduct.

Disregarding accepted rules.

Synonyms and Antonyms for Licentious

The word "licentious" in example sentences

The matrons and virgins of Babylon freely mingled with the men in licentious banquets; and as they felt the intoxication of wine and love, they gradually, and almost completely, threw aside the encumbrance of dress; ad ultimum ima corporum velamenta projiciunt. ❋ Unknown (1206)

The only expedient which could prevent their separation was boldly agitated and approved the popular resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of complaint were heightened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine; as, on the eve of their departure, the troops were indulged in licentious festivity. ❋ Unknown (1206)

The gradual redefinition of freedom, away from the notion of responsible civic freedom and toward the notion of licentious personal liberty, both contributes to and is reinforced by ongoing trends in mass media. ❋ Zbigniew Brzezinski (1993)

But they ever retained the inveterate vanity of their country: their praise, or at least their esteem, was reserved for the national writers, to whom they owed their fame and subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed their contempt in licentious criticism or satire on Virgil’s poetry, and the oratory of Tully. ❋ Unknown (1206)

Just as Wagner's dramas have been called licentious, so his character has been described as sensual, in defiance of easily ascertainable facts. ❋ George Ainslie Hight (N/A)

She quotes a “wonderfully just” passage from Milton, calls a licentious speech from Dryden's “State of Innocence” an “odious thing,” and says ❋ Whicher, George Frisbie (1915)

There is (barring a possible double meaning or two) nothing of the kind generally known as licentious; it is the merely foul and dirty language of common folk at all times, introduced, not with humorous extravagance in the ❋ George Saintsbury (1889)

Freedom, as present in our current society, represents the wide range from any kind of licentious but licit behaviour through the practical freedoms of the press and media up to the philosophical freedoms of religion and thought. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Greek grammarians connect its name with aselges, which means "licentious"; some think the first letter of the word a negative particle, but others find in it a meaning of reinforcement. ❋ 1840-1916 (1913)

He anticipated meagre results from a literary propaganda among the broad Jewish masses, in which the mere reading of such "licentious" books was considered a criminal offence. ❋ I. [Translator] Friedlaender (1900)

It is celebrated at harvest time with dancing, and drinking, "and every kind of licentious enjoyment." ❋ Edward Washburn Hopkins (1894)

Editors sometimes were rather horrified at my sending in so much blank verse, and blank verse of what the Elizabethans called a "licentious" type, that is, not governed by strict rules. ❋ John St. Loe Strachey (1893)

Gospel has lent itself to a certain kind of licentious handling -- of which in other ancient writings we have no experience. ❋ John William Burgon (1850)

Every kind of licentious language and actions was practised in the worship of these deities, accompanied with a frantic rage called orgies, from the Greek word for _rage_. ❋ Nehemiah Adams (1842)

In addition, this particular brand of humour has an ancient pedigree, stemming as it does from centuries of western suspicion towards the "licentious" Arab and his shady intimacy with the ❋ Unknown (2009)

Emerson's biggest gripe are those images which even calls "licentious" and he goes on at length about (without giving an example). ❋ Unknown (2008)

"liberty protected by law," he is ready to run into any kind of licentious excess, and is easily made the tool in the hands of the designing to perform the most nefarious deeds and carry out the most incendiary purposes. ❋ Unknown (1848)

"but a kind of licentious and corrupt government" -- was not likely to require the assistance of the new lieutenant-general in field operations nor could the army be brought into a state of thorough discipline and efficiency by the magic of Leicester's name. ❋ John Lothrop Motley (1845)

Cross Reference for Licentious

What does licentious mean?

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