EXTRAVAGANCE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Extravagance

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/ɛkstrˈævəgəns/ Listen

noun

Extravagance n.

A wandering beyond proper limits; an excursion or sally from the usual way, course, or limit.

The state of being extravagant, wild, or prodigal beyond bounds of propriety or duty; want of moderation; excess; especially, undue expenditure of money; vaid and superfluous expense; prodigality; as, extravagance of anger, love, expression, imagination, demands. "Some verses of my own, Maximin and Almanzor, cry vengeance on me for their extravagance." "The income of three dukes was enough to supply her extravagance."

Synonyms: Wildness; irregularity; excess; prodigality; profusion; waste; lavishness; unreasonableness; recklessness.

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Etymology of 'Extravagance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Extravagance" Quotes from Famous Books

... earlier, had introduced in one of his Debates (Works, xi. 349). He makes one of the speakers say:—'Our expenses are not all equally destructive; some, though the method of raising them be vexatious and oppressive, do not much impoverish the nation, because they are refunded by the extravagance and luxury of those who are retained in the pay of the court.' See post, March 23, 1783. The whole argument is nothing but Mandeville's doctrine of 'private vices, public benefits.' See post, ...

— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... are concerned, being settled (which it can be, and shall be, when I see you tomorrow), I have no further delicacy about the matter. This is about the tenth execution in as many months; so I am pretty well hardened; but it is fit I should pay the forfeit of my forefathers' extravagance as well as my own; and whatever my faults may be, I suppose they will be pretty ...

— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... open, to find a solid lump mysteriously arranged in the top of every one. The teasing she had to endure when the truth was known, was only equalled by that which fell to her lot a week later when, as if to make amends for past extravagance, she forgot to put any sugar at all in her sponge cake. Even Alan's appetite failed to compass the ...

— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray

... by one, certain ladies of particularly elastic virtue, who fondly dreamed that they 'managed' him; and among these, to her infinite rage and despair, went Madame Vantine, wife of Vantine the winegrower, a yellow-haired, sensual "femelle d'homme," whose extravagance in clothes, and reckless indecency in conversation, combined with the King's amused notice, and the super- excellence of her husband's wines, had for a brief period made her 'the rage' among a certain set of exceedingly ...

— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... and thorns. Great bunches of the same expensive ornament swung from the ceiling, and the piano was covered with a quilt of them deftly woven together. The pale green drawing-room was as lavishly decorated with pink and white orchids and lilies of the valley. Lady Mary felt that she could vie in extravagance with the most ambitious in her husband's ...

— Senator North • Gertrude Atherton

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