1. recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources
2. licentious; dissolute
Usage: formal

1. a person given to wildly extravagant and usually grossly self-indulgent expenditure

Examples

• The company’s profligate spending on executive bonuses angered shareholders.
• His profligate lifestyle eventually led to bankruptcy.
• The government was criticized for its profligate use of taxpayer money.
• She lived a profligate existence, indulging in every luxury imaginable.
• The young heir was known as a profligate who squandered his inheritance.
• Critics called the mayor a profligate for approving the expensive project.
• The profligate waste of natural resources concerned environmentalists.