as in spendthrift
someone who spends money freely or foolishly
the black sheep of the family, he ended up being a wastrel and a drunkard
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Recent Examples of wastrel
The always-entertaining Bruce Turk steals all his scenes as Ranevskaya’s spoiled and wastrel brother, Leonid Gayev.
—
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Mar. 2023
Selby is a wastrel with a criminal past, yet his mother keeps providing him with soft places to fall.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2023
Even in 1997, everyone looks pretty good for a bunch of wastrel rockers, whose intersecting trajectories are spun through the early chapters.
—John Anderson, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023
There's also a stern widower father (Adrian Dunbar), a tender-hearted wastrel brother (Dunkirk's Fionn Whitehead), and the aforementioned hot priest (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who lights a fire in both Emily's mind and her loins.
—Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2023
See all Example Sentences for wastrel 
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Mar. 2023
Selby is a wastrel with a criminal past, yet his mother keeps providing him with soft places to fall.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2023
Even in 1997, everyone looks pretty good for a bunch of wastrel rockers, whose intersecting trajectories are spun through the early chapters.
—John Anderson, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023
There's also a stern widower father (Adrian Dunbar), a tender-hearted wastrel brother (Dunkirk's Fionn Whitehead), and the aforementioned hot priest (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who lights a fire in both Emily's mind and her loins.
—Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2023
See all Example Sentences for wastrel
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wastrel
Noun
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Brown reduced the number from 10.0 in spendthrift Schwarzenegger’s last year to an average of 9.26 over eight years.—
John Seiler,
Orange County Register,
17 Jan. 2025
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The political newlyweds were followed closely by actual newlyweds, the spendthrift Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, at 20 percent.—
airmail.news,
airmail.news,
27 July 2024
Noun
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Instead, all the adulation is directed toward Charlotte’s prodigal adopted son, the guy who holds more than his share of team records and is considered by many to be the best player in franchise history.—
Roderick Boone,
Charlotte Observer,
6 Jan. 2025
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After all, there’s always one prodigal — one unstable element who’s removed themself as far as possible from the precarious family mixture.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
21 Nov. 2024
Noun
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For example, default settings for focus time added blocking of sites in the categories Shopping, Tabloids, and Time wasters.—
PCMAG,
PCMAG,
13 Jan. 2025
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Photo: Brown Harris Stevens Above the bedroom is a double-height library, which turns the sloping ceiling behind a mansard roof into a design feature rather than a space waster.—
Adriane Quinlan,
Curbed,
24 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near wastrel
Cite this Entry
“Wastrel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wastrel. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.
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