How to Use wanton in a Sentence

wanton

1 of 3 adjective
  • Vandals were guilty of the wanton destruction of the school property.
  • He showed a wanton disregard for his friend's feelings.
  • They were accused of wanton cruelty toward animals.
  • The wanton madness on the streets and the threat to human life is almost too much to bear.
    Corey Atad, Esquire, 7 July 2017
  • And a country blighted by wanton disorder over the past decade braces for more of the same.
    Time, 26 July 2023
  • Sleep under the stars on a warm late June night, and take it all in with a side of wanton, prurient sky candy.
    Heather Arndt Anderson, Sunset Magazine, 7 Jan. 2020
  • This is a crime, and a wanton disregard of other people.
    Chris Francescani, ABC News, 15 Feb. 2020
  • Then again, this is a dark comedy in which the wanton decadence is best left to speak for itself, and to be guiltily enjoyed.
    David Coddon, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Nobody needs to get rid of their preferred tool of wanton destruction.
    Lucas Daprile, cleveland, 24 July 2023
  • Now go to Apps, and gaze upon what your wanton permissions-granting hath wrought.
    Brian Barrett, WIRED, 21 Mar. 2018
  • He is held at the Campbell County Jail on three counts of wanton endangerment, jail records show.
    Jennifer Edwards Baker and Lauren Minor, Cincinnati.com, 1 July 2019
  • She was booked into jail on a felony wanton endangerment charge and DUI.
    Justin Sayers, The Courier-Journal, 27 July 2017
  • Each worker was charged with wanton neglect and was required to serve two to four weeks in jail, the Des Moines Register reported.
    Crimesider Staff, CBS News, 27 Feb. 2018
  • Finally, be sure to pay attention to wanton waste laws.
    Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 3 June 2020
  • Bush was jailed on $5 million bond Thursday on two counts of murder and 10 counts of felony wanton endangerment.
    Dylan Lovan, The Seattle Times, 26 Oct. 2018
  • Yet if that's a boon to consumers, there's a nagging sense that such wanton abundance and convenience will come with tradeoffs for studios.
    Brian Lowry, CNN, 14 Jan. 2020
  • He was cited for of willful or wanton disregard of safety.
    Joe Vardon, cleveland.com, 23 Oct. 2017
  • One of the things that most alarms me about this President is his wanton disregard for democratic institutions -- the courts and rule of law and a free press, among others.
    Chris Cillizza, CNN, 9 Apr. 2018
  • The vehicle was found in the garage and the driver, a 59-year-old man, was cited for fleeing and eluding, expired plates and willful wanton disregard for safety.
    Andy Attina / Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • After the incident, Herald was charged with one count of assault and one count of wanton endangerment.
    Sarah Brookbank, Cincinnati.com, 25 July 2019
  • This has been another summer of excess for the majority of the teams in the Premier League, where the scale of the spending has at times bordered on the irrational, almost wanton.
    Rory Smith, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The shooter in that case, William Merideth, was cleared of local charges, including wanton endangerment.
    Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica, 1 Jan. 2018
  • Police said the 30-year-old man faces seven counts of wanton endangerment and one count of malicious wounding.
    Washington Post, 3 Jan. 2020
  • On Friday, a 15-year-old Louisville boy was charged with possession of a handgun by a minor and wanton endangerment in the incident.
    Savannah Eadens, The Courier-Journal, 23 Aug. 2019
  • No drunken screaming matches with roommates or wanton drug use.
    Hilary Elkins, Marie Claire, 14 June 2017
  • The main, if not only, cause of the collapse of the northern white rhino, and the devastation of black and southern white rhinos, is wanton killing of the animals, primarily for their horns.
    Jason Florio, Smithsonian, 22 May 2018
  • He's been charged with murder, two counts of first degree wanton endangerment and first degree assault.
    Sarah Ladd, The Courier-Journal, 27 Apr. 2020
  • Her editor’s wanton teenage daughter (Ludivine Sagnier) and then a dead body show up at a vacation home in France.
    Kathryn Shattuck, New York Times, 3 July 2017
  • But there is reason to believe that a universal basic income wouldn't ignite a wanton spending spree on jet skis and handbags.
    Ben Mitchell, CBS News, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Avery's mother, Deanna Hose, pleaded guilty to wanton endangerment and was sentenced to five years in prison.
    courier-journal.com, 8 Aug. 2019
Advertisement

wanton

2 of 3 noun
  • Plus, the sinner has been known to wear mirrors on the tops of his shoes for wanton upskirting.
    Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2021
  • Bans on torture and wanton destruction have been in place for the U.S. Army since the eighteen-sixties.
    Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2021
  • How does the prankster in question justify such wanton waste?
    Amelia Tait, Wired, 28 Dec. 2021
  • The man was charged with speeding and willful and wanton disregard for safety.
    cleveland, 25 June 2020
  • And beyond that, isn’t charged with her death, but is only charged with three counts of wanton endangerment of the first degree.
    Sarah Midkiff, refinery29.com, 30 Sep. 2020
  • The next day he was found not guilty on three charges of wanton endangerment, a low-level felony that could have landed him in prison for one to five years.
    Dylan Lovan, ajc, 4 Mar. 2022
  • He's been charged with three counts of wanton endangerment.
    Nicholas Reimann, Forbes, 26 Apr. 2021
  • First-degree wanton endangerment is a Class D felony, the lowest of four classes of felonies.
    Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 24 Sep. 2020
  • What eye can trace them, in their varied wanton amorous chaces, bounding and fluttering on the odiferous air!
    Annie Proulx, The New Yorker, 27 June 2022
  • The extremists have left a trail of wanton, sometimes bizarre, destruction.
    National Geographic, 6 Feb. 2017
  • The man was also charged with speeding and wanton disregard of public safety.
    John Benson, cleveland, 16 June 2021
  • And supporters of peace and freedom around the world can rejoice that Mr. Putin’s wanton aggression has brought him to such an unhappy place.
    Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, 12 Sep. 2022
  • One was indicted on a charge of wanton endangerment and has pleaded not guilty.
    USA Today, 11 Mar. 2021
  • To Kuznetsov, Babi Yar was a symbol of wanton savagery committed by two murderous regimes.
    Anatoly Kuznetsov, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023
  • He has been charged with murder and wanton endangerment.
    CBS News, 28 June 2020
  • He was acquitted on three counts of felony wanton endangerment in connection with the raid.
    Giselle Rhoden, CNN, 16 Apr. 2022
  • That office confirmed that a jury found Chapman not guilty of open and gross lewdness and lewd, wanton, and lascivious acts.
    Danny McDonald, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Aug. 2019
  • Hankison is charged with three counts wanton endangerment and has been fired.
    Kevin L. Clark, Essence, 24 Feb. 2022
  • Hankison, who is expected to take the stand in his own defense, faces three counts of felony wanton endangerment.
    Aaron Cooper and Ray Sanchez, CNN, 24 Feb. 2022
  • Hankison has pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment, a class D felony that is one step above a misdemeanor.
    Tessa Duvall, The Courier-Journal, 1 Feb. 2022
  • And because the judge did not dismiss the theory that relies on You’s text messages — wanton or reckless conduct — the defense has sought its appeal.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Nov. 2021
  • Marquis Whalen, 22, of Erlanger, is charged with assault and wanton endangerment, the release states.
    Madeline Mitchell, The Enquirer, 5 Aug. 2020
  • Hankison, who was fired from the police department in June, was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree and has pleaded not guilty.
    Danielle Wallace, Fox News, 3 Oct. 2020
  • The erotic scenes are dialectical as well as hot; the meetings have a wanton, feverish energy.
    A. O. Scott, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2017
  • The assault and wanton endangerment charges related to Hovekamp and the two friends who were riding in the Mustang with Pozo Illas.
    Billy Kobin, The Courier-Journal, 2 July 2021
  • He was acquitted in March of three state charges of wanton endangerment for firing those shots without a clear target.
    Marisa Iati, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Aug. 2022
  • His rhetoric, his callousness, his wanton lies all make a compromise harder.
    Andrew Sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, 22 June 2018
  • Lopez pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and nine counts of first-degree wanton endangerment following the shooting.
    Billy Kobin, The Courier-Journal, 9 July 2020
  • Colorado and Chicago are right to move to enact policies that protect drivers; to stop the wanton firing of workers who make ride-hail possible.
    Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2023
  • Cruz did assert that all of the legal attacks are motivated by political calculus and a wanton disregard for the rule of law.
    Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 2 Aug. 2023
Advertisement

wanton

3 of 3 verb
  • Mayhem, carnage, smash-ups and wanton destruction ensue — and that’s just in the first 10 minutes.
    Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 17 May 2023
  • The club’s spending has been considerable, but hardly wanton by the bloated standards of the Premier League.
    Rory Smith, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The problem with the plan was fratricide, among other wanton cellular murders.
    Jason Mast, STAT, 31 Aug. 2023
  • All of the attacks were wanton, aimed at destruction of the cultural and artistic heritage of humanity.
    David J. Wasserstein, The Conversation, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Brett Hankison, an officer who fired shots but didn’t hit anybody during the raid, was found not guilty by a jury of wanton endangerment charges.
    Dylan Lovan, Anchorage Daily News, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Segall’s signature guitar fuzz freezes over on this January record, revealing a crystallized vision of the wacky, wanton future of punk.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2023
  • The negligence, gross negligence, and the reckless, outrageous, willful and wanton conduct of the Defendants caused this devastating tragedy, and they must be held liable.
    Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 5 June 2023
  • Working as a lab tech with a master’s in chemistry, she’s dismissed by the White men running the place, having had her academic career derailed before that by even more wanton sexism at the university.
    Brian Lowry, CNN, 13 Oct. 2023
  • The federal charges against Hankison were brought three months after a jury acquitted him of state wanton endangerment charges.
    Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 16 Nov. 2023
  • The rest of their daily lives, full of internal politics and wanton bloodshed, are packaged as episodic reality television.
    Giri Nathan, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023
  • There are exclusions for criminal offenses, gross negligence and willful or wanton misconduct, but those cases are rare and much more difficult to prove.
    Kristine Phillips, The Indianapolis Star, 25 Apr. 2023
  • With public confidence in the high court dropping, Blumenthal and Ocasio-Cortez see an opportunity for Democrats to stand up to wanton corruption in government, a move that is sure to be popular with voters the party can win in next year’s election.
    Pablo Manríquez, The New Republic, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The driver was also cited for speeding, willful wanton disregard for safety, drug abuse, possession of drug paraphernalia and open container.
    John Benson, cleveland, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Those counts include complicity to murder, wanton endangerment and tampering with evidence.
    Quinlan Bentley, The Enquirer, 7 Sep. 2023
  • This shows in Dundon’s raw, unflattering style of composition but also in his specific preoccupations: wanton vandalism, cheap tattoos, explicit graffiti—abrasions and abandon.
    Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 20 June 2023
  • For Cather, both were impaired by Confederate Southern mythmaking: warrior angst, aristocrat elegy, belligerent disdain, wanton nostalgia.
    Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 7 Mar. 2022
  • It might well be, said Mrs McNab, wantoning on with her memories; they had friends in eastern countries; gentlemen staying there, ladies in evening dress; she had seen them once through the dining-room door all sitting at dinner.
    Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, 1927
  • Mayhem, carnage, smash-ups and wanton destruction ensue — and that’s just in the first 10 minutes.
    Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 17 May 2023
  • The club’s spending has been considerable, but hardly wanton by the bloated standards of the Premier League.
    Rory Smith, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The problem with the plan was fratricide, among other wanton cellular murders.
    Jason Mast, STAT, 31 Aug. 2023
  • All of the attacks were wanton, aimed at destruction of the cultural and artistic heritage of humanity.
    David J. Wasserstein, The Conversation, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Brett Hankison, an officer who fired shots but didn’t hit anybody during the raid, was found not guilty by a jury of wanton endangerment charges.
    Dylan Lovan, Anchorage Daily News, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Segall’s signature guitar fuzz freezes over on this January record, revealing a crystallized vision of the wacky, wanton future of punk.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2023
  • The negligence, gross negligence, and the reckless, outrageous, willful and wanton conduct of the Defendants caused this devastating tragedy, and they must be held liable.
    Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 5 June 2023
  • Working as a lab tech with a master’s in chemistry, she’s dismissed by the White men running the place, having had her academic career derailed before that by even more wanton sexism at the university.
    Brian Lowry, CNN, 13 Oct. 2023
  • The federal charges against Hankison were brought three months after a jury acquitted him of state wanton endangerment charges.
    Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 16 Nov. 2023
  • The rest of their daily lives, full of internal politics and wanton bloodshed, are packaged as episodic reality television.
    Giri Nathan, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023
  • There are exclusions for criminal offenses, gross negligence and willful or wanton misconduct, but those cases are rare and much more difficult to prove.
    Kristine Phillips, The Indianapolis Star, 25 Apr. 2023
  • With public confidence in the high court dropping, Blumenthal and Ocasio-Cortez see an opportunity for Democrats to stand up to wanton corruption in government, a move that is sure to be popular with voters the party can win in next year’s election.
    Pablo Manríquez, The New Republic, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The driver was also cited for speeding, willful wanton disregard for safety, drug abuse, possession of drug paraphernalia and open container.
    John Benson, cleveland, 12 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wanton.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: