Wanton a. and sb.

Forms: 4 wantowen, 4–5 -towne, 5 wantowe, wantton, 4–6 wantoun, (6 wantount), 4 Sc. vanton, 4–5 wantun, 5–6 vantoun, 4– wanton. [ME. wantowen, f. WAN- + towen:—OE. toʓen pa. pple. of téon TEE v.¹ to discipline, train. The word thus literally means ‘undisciplined’; cf. UNTOWEN a., and the equivalent G. ungezogen; also ME. welitowen well-brought-up.]

  A.  adj.

  † 1.  Of persons: Undisciplined, ungoverned; not amenable to control, unmanageable, rebellious. Of children: Naughty, unruly. Obs.

  Wanton of word: violent or insolent in speech.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11952. Yur sun þat wantun [Gött. wantoun] and þat wild, Wit his banning has slan vr child.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 57. For whonne Blod is Bremore þen Brayn þen is Inwit I-bounde, And eke wantoun and wylde withouten eny Resoun.

14[?].  26 Pol. Poems, xii. 113. The fadir, þe wanton child wole kenne, Chastyse wiþ ȝerde, and bete hit sore.

c. 1420.  ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1230. ‘A’ seyde Reason, ‘then I know well that felawe. Wylde he ys & wanton, of me stant hym noon awe.’

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 515/2. Wantowe … insolens, dissolutus.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, I. 211. A hely schrew, wanton in his entent.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 100. The Carll was wantoun of word, and wox wonder wraith.

c. 1491.  Chast. Goddes Chyld., 15. Yf the childe wexe wanton the moder beteth hym fyrst with a litell rodde and the strenger he wexeth the gretter rodde she taketh.

a. 1513.  Fabyan, Chron., cxxvii. (1533), 62. Dagobert … associated vnto hym certayne wanton persones and bete his mayster.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 183. He with Piers of Gauestone and other wanton and wilde persons, had broken the Parke of the sayde bishop.

1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 7. (1619), 127. Thus he shal make such wanton who should rather be kept vnder, by speaking peace to whom it belongeth not.

1697.  J. Lewis, Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789), 72. The Dutchess of Northumberland came with several ladies of fashion to the Duke [a little boy] at Windsor, when unfortunately he was a little wanton, suffering some improper expressions to escape him.

  † b.  Of an animal: Skittish, refractory. Of a hawk: Out of hand, unmanageable. Obs.

1535.  Coverdale, Hos. iv. 16. For Israel is gone backe, like a wanton cowe.

c. 1575.  Perf. Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (1886), 26. Sugarcandy and butter will make her lustye, moyste, and proude, and being ofte used will make her wanton and to sore away.

1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 115. The cow kicked up her heels, and proved wanton and refractory.

  † c.  Of actions: Lawless, violent; in weaker sense, rude, ill-mannered. Obs. Cf. 5 b.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 12. Sum [couettis to lestyn] of wirschip I-wis slike as þam wyse lattis, And sum of wanton werkis þa þat ere wild-hedid.

c. 1430.  Bk. Curteisie, 20, in Babees Bk. And take good hede bi wisdom & resoun Þat bi no wantowne lauȝinge þou do noon offence.

  d.  Said of boys, with mixture of sense 4; often (after Shakespeare’s use) with reference to childish cruelty.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. i. 38. As Flies to wanton Boyes are we to th’ Gods, They kill vs for their sport.

1692.  E. Walker, trans. Epictetus’ Mor., xxxiv. Else you’ll desist, and jade like wanton Boys.

1741–2.  Gray, Agrippina, 189. Had her wanton son Lent us his wings, we could not have beguil’d With more elusive speed the dazzled sight Of wakeful jealousy.

1822.  Scott, Peveril, xliii. You make me feel like the poor bird, around whose wing some wanton boy has fixed a line, to pull the struggling wretch to earth at his pleasure.

  2.  Lascivious, unchaste, lewd. † Also, in milder sense, given to amorous dalliance.

  a.  of persons (in early use only of women).

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 143. That alle wommen wantowen shulleþ be war by þe one, And biterliche banne þe. Ibid., VIII. 300. Ich haue ywedded a wyf, quaþ he, wel wantowen [v.rr. wantoun, wanton] of maners.

c. 1420.  Wyntoun, Cron., IV. vi. 464. A woman occupyit þat steid Twa ȝeris as paip … Bot scho wes wantoun or hire waire.

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshman (Percy Soc.), 26. Her name was wanton Besse, Who leest with her delt he thryved not the lesse!

c. 1515.  Cocke Lorell’s B., 14. And many whyte nonnes with whyte vayles, That was full wanton of theyr tayles.

1569.  Underdown, Ovid’s Invect. Ibis, D vj. Tyresias … gaue sentence of Iupiters syde, and concluded that women were the wantoner. Wherefore Iuno moued to anger put out hys eyes.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. i. 19. Thou art a most pernitious Vsurer,… Lasciuious, wanton, more then well beseemes A man of thy Profession, and Degree.

1592.  Kyd, Sp. Trag., I. i. My soule Did liue imprisond in my wanton flesh.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Yorks. (1662), 190. Henry [I.] was very wanton, as appeareth by his numerous natural issue.

1712.  Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. i. As for his personal Reflexions, I would gladly know who are those Wanton Wives he speaks of?

1766.  Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Women (1767), I. i. 16. A daughter … turns out unruly, foolish, wanton.

  b.  transf. and fig.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 129. When we haue laught to see the sailes conceiue, And grow big bellied with the wanton winde. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., IV. v. 220. Yond Towers, whose wanton tops do busse the clouds, Must kisse their owne feet.

1679.  [C. Cotton], The Confinement: a Poem, 55.

  c.  of dispositions, thoughts, speech, action or appearance.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 602. And after that he sang ful loude and cleere, And kiste his wyf, and made wantowne cheere.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 10824. Oft in wanton werkes wex þai with childe.

c. 1420.  ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 378. But aboue all other she [Venus] had a wanton ey.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 760. She thought him secretly familiar with the king in wanton company.

1577.  Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk., 64. But especyally keepe them from reading of fayned fables, vayne fantasyes, and wanton stories.

1651.  C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., I. 175. But consider this Commandment in the full extent of it, as forbidding all wanton lookes.

a. 1672.  Wood, Life, etc. (O.H.S.), I. 366. A wanton (in plaine terms, a baudy) expression.

1782.  Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 12 June. I should have cared little about a wanton expression.

1789–96.  Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 546. By the continuation of wanton attitudes, they acquire … a frantic lasciviousness.

1843.  Lytton, Last Bar., I. ii. And dancing round him, with wanton looks and bare arms.

1846.  Keble, Lyra Innoc., Gleaners. Those evil powers,… rude gaze and wanton word.

  d.  of writers.

1820.  Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 144. They are always abusing ‘wanton poets.’

  3.  Sportive, unrestrained in merriment.

  † a.  Of persons: Jovial, given to broad jesting, waggish. Also, free from care. Obs.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 208. A frere ther was, a wantowne and a merye, A lymytour, a ful solempne man.

c. 1560.  A. Scott, Poems, xv. 3. Art thow nocht wantoun, haill, and in gud howp…. Bathing in bliss, and sett in hie curaige? Ibid., xxvii. 7. Wantone in weill but wo, Glaid withowt grief also.

  b.  of young animals: Frisky, frolicsome. Chiefly poet.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Lasciuus, Wantoner then a yonge kidde.

1593.  Drayton, Ecl., vi. 81. The early wanton Lambs, That ’mongst the Hillocks wont to skip and play.

1694.  Addison, Poems, Hor. Ode, III. iii. 74. Let the wanton flocks unguarded stray.

1733.  Pope, Ess. Man, III. 29. Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn.

1746.  Smollett, Tears of Scot., 14. Thy swains are famish’d on the rocks, Where once they fed their wanton flocks.

  c.  Said poet. of moving objects, viewed as if endowed with life: Sportive, impelled by caprice or fancy, free, unrestrained.

1601.  Weever, Mirr. Mart., E ij b. Tide for the ship, and ship was for the tide … For Neptune men, and Neptune them to guide, Thames wanton currant stealing on behind.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 517. So varied hee, and of his tortuous Traine Curld many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve.

1742.  Collins, Or. Ecl., i. 15. When wanton gales along the valleys play.

1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, V. xv. 9. While Phœbus’locks float wanton in the wind.

1777.  Sir W. Jones, Poems, Seven Fountains, 33. A wanton bark was floating o’er the main.

  † d.  Of color, music: Gay, lively. Obs.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. M 2. Then euerie one of these his men, he [the Lord of Misrule] inuesteth with his liueries, of green, yellow or some other light wanton colour.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., 150. Though he were a priest he would rather choose to excell in that wanton and pleasing musick then in that which [etc.].

1743.  Collins, Epist. to Hanmer, 41. With graceful ease the wanton lyre he strung.

  † 4.  ‘Spoiled,’ petulant (of children); hence, self-indulgent, effeminate, luxurious. Obs.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Mollio,… to make wanton or tender. Ibid., Sibariticus, wanton or delycate.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. i. 55. We are all diseas’d, And with our surfetting, and wanton howres, Haue brought our selues into a burning Feuer.

1601.  I. R., World or Kingd. & Commw., 169. The inhabitants [of China] partly by their effeminate and wanton kinde of life, partly by their forme of gouernment,… haue little valour or manhood left them.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 438, ¶ 4. Your Temper is Wanton, and incapable of the least Pain.

1746.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epist., II. i. 128. When Greece beheld her Wars in Triumph cease, She soon grew wanton in the Arms of Peace.

1835.  Thirlwall, Greece, I. ii. 59. Hence the name and the legend of Piqsus, who reigned over the Pelasgians in the valley of the Hermus, and grew wanton from the exuberant increase of the land.

  † b.  Fastidious or dainty in appetite. Obs.

1530.  Palsgr., 328/2. Wanton of condycions … friant; friande.

1693.  Locke, Educ., § 14. If he be hungry more than wanton, bread alone will down.

1727.  Arbuthnot, etc., John Bull, IV. Postscr. ch. ix. How John pamper’d Esquire South with Tit-bits, till he grew wanton.

  † c.  Of clothing, diet: Luxurious. Obs.

1489.  Caxton, Faytes of A., I. ix. B iij b. The auncient noble men … made not theyre children to be norisshed in the kyngis & prynces courts for to lerne pryde, lechery nor to were wanton clothing.

1562.  Turner, Baths, 6. It commeth by evell and wanton diet.

1825.  Jamieson, Wanton-meat, the entertainment of spirits, sweetmeats, etc., given to those in a house at the birth of a child, Tevioid[ale]; elsewhere called Blithe-meat.

  † d.  Said of money or wealth, as tempting to extravagance or luxury. Obs.

1529.  More, Dyaloge (1531), 76 b. And hauyng a lytell wanton money, which hym thought brenned out the botom of his purs … he toke his wyfe … to see Flaunders and Fraunce, [etc.].

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 783. The hope of gaye apparell, ease, pleasure, and other wanton welth was able soon to pierce a soft tender hart.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary (1819), I. 2. Wotton … most tempting for a great person and a wanton purse to render it conspicuous.

1770.  Goldsm., Des. Vill., 260. The midnight masquerade, With all the freaks of wanton wealth arrayed.

  † 5.  Of persons: Insolent in triumph or prosperity; reckless of justice and humanity; merciless. Obs.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XI. xiv. 149. O, quod the maid, thou fals Liguriane, Our wantoun in thy proud mynd, all in vane [L. frustraque animis elate superbis].

1624.  Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, IV. 129. They now began to shrinke, and giue vs leaue to be wanton with our aduantage.

1643.  Burroughes, Exp. 1st 3 ch. Hosea, vi. 266. When men get abundance, they soon grow wanton.

a. 1683.  Sidney, Disc. Govt., II. xv. (1704), 114. When that proud City [Rome] found no more resistance, it grew wanton.

1722.  Steele, Consc. Lovers, III. i. You took no Delight, when you immediately grew wanton, in your Conquest.

1764.  Goldsm., Trav., 385. When I behold … Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw.

  b.  Of cruelty, injury, insult or neglect: Unprovoked and reckless of justice or compassion; arbitrary, gratuitous.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., IV. xliv. 342. Which is not arguing from Scripture, but a wanton insulting over Princes.

1729.  Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 29. Profane swearing … implies wanton disregard and irreverence towards an infinite Being.

1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 75, ¶ 12. Some of them revenged the neglect … by wanton and superfluous insults.

1769.  Burke, Late St. Nat., Wks. 1842, I. 109. The wanton and indiscriminate seizure of papers, even in cases where the safety of the State was not pretended in justification of so harsh a proceeding.

1841.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxxxi. You see the destruction that has been wanton here.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 161. The feeling which has … induced the legislature to interfere for the purpose of protecting beasts against the wanton cruelty of men.

1868.  J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 222, note. It is impossible to pass by the wanton manner in which this is perverted by Mr. Froude.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., lxxxv. III. 133. Tyranny consists in the wanton and improper use of strength by the stronger.

  † c.  In weaker sense: Reckless of decorum. Obs.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 20. Some wanton persons, who … affect low leanings, to make use either to sit on, and break the glasse-windowes, or to shew themselves in Quirpo to passengers.

  † d.  Of natural occurrences: Abnormal, extraordinary. Obs. rare.

a. 1754.  Fielding, Ess. Conv., Wks. 1784, IX. 364. These men … are no less monsters than the most wanton abortions, or extravagant births.

  † 6.  Capricious, frivolous, giddy. Obs.

1538.  Starkey, England (1878), 137. They were no thyng mete to kendyl … Chrystyan hertys to deuotyon … but rather to ster wanton myndys to vayn plesure.

c. 1560.  A. Scott, Poems, xx. 40. Thy wantoun, folich mynd!

1602.  Churchyard, Wond. Air, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 404. The bedstocke and the tycke, And all belongs to bed, Is but vaine pleasures that we like To please a wanton head.

  † b.  Of a material substance: Changeable. Obs. (? nonce-use.)

1681.  Grew, Musæum, III. § ii. i. 323. Gold hath the least variety of regular figure, in the Ore, of any Metal. Because, more solid, and therefore, less wanton, than the rest.

  7.  Profuse in growth, luxuriant, rank. poet.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 99. The queint Mazes in the wanton green For lacke of tread are vndistinguishable. Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 214. She bids you, On the wanton Rushes lay you downe.

1704.  Pope, Spring, 35. Where wanton Ivy twines.

1876.  Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 217. Wanton weeds my garden cumbered.

  † b.  Robust, overflowing with health. Obs.

1674.  R. Godfrey, Inj. & Ab. Physick, 78. I have examined the Bloods of two hundred wanton Country healthy people.

  † 8.  Unrestrained. a. Of speech or imagination: Extravagant. b. Of physical movement: Headlong, impetuous. Obs.

  a.  1680.  Otway, Orphan, I. i. I have heard him wanton in his Praise Speak things of him might charm the ears of Envy.

1713.  Addison, Cato, I. iv. How does your Tongue grow wanton in her Praise!

1759.  Hume, Hist. Eng., Ho. Tudor, II. Eliz. iv. 589. Sir Philip Sidney … is described … as the most perfect model of an accomplished gentleman which was ever formed even by the wanton imagination of poetry or fiction.

  b.  1753.  Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, xvii. 223. A fine Arabian war-horse, unbacked, and at liberty, and in a wanton trot.

  9.  Comb.: wanton-eyed, -winged adjs.; † wanton mad, sick adjs., mad with the insolence of prosperity.

1603.  Breton, Mad World (Grosart), 8/1. A … sharpe-witted, *wanton-eyed, and faire-handed … gentlewoman.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 15 July 1683. In a word, we were *wanton madd, and surfeiting with prosperity.

1599.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., II. iii. That griefe is *wanton sick Whose stomacke can digest and brooke the dyet Of stale ill relisht counsell.

1608.  Armin, Nest Ninn. (1880), 47. The world wanton sick, as one surfetting on sinne.

1777.  Potter, Æschylus, 128. Each insect, and each *wanton-winged bird.

  B.  sb.

  † 1.  A person, esp. a child, spoiled by over-indulgence and excessive leniency; a spoilt child, a pampered pet. Obs.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 41 b. Our lorde knoweth well that we be wantons … and … farre from the holy lyfe of perfeccyon.

1530.  Palsgr., 286/2. Wanton[.] cockeney, mignot, mignotte. Wanton of condicyons, saffre.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke, Pref. C ij. A Queene … if she would become fortunes wanton, she might without coumptrollemente swimme in the delices of all suche prosperitee.

1580.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 36. I am enforced to thinke … that thy parents made thee a wanton with too much cockering.

1595.  Shaks., John, V. i. 70. Shall a beardlesse boy, A cockred-silken wanton braue our fields.

1623.  Rowlandson, God’s Bless., 8. So mothers deale with their little wantons, by taking the bread from them, which they tread under foot.

1656.  Sanderson, Serm. (1689), 103. A Father may love a child too fondly and make him a Wanton.

  † 2.  A person, esp. a child, of playful, roguish or sportive conduct. (Sometimes used as a term of endearment.) Obs.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 27. Sephestias Song to her Childe. Wepe not my wanton! smile vpon my knee!

1616.  B. Jonson, Masque Oberon, 977. Silenus [to the Satyrs] Peace my wantons.

  † b.  A sportive or roguish animal, bird, etc. Obs.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 126. As the Cockney did to the Eeles, when she put ’em i’ th’ Paste aliue, she knapt ’em o’ th’ coxcombs with a sticke, and cryed downe wantons, downe.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, VII. 678. Their Sister Silvia cherish’d with her Care The little Wanton [a young stag].

1791.  Lochmaben Harper, iv. in Child, Ballads, IV. 17. And tak a halter … And … wap it oer the Wanton’s nose, And tie her to the gray mare’s tail.

1805.  Wordsw., Waggoner, III. 118. Yon screech-owl,… I know that Wanton’s noisy station.

1812.  Cary, Dante, Parad., V. 83. The lamb, That, fickle wanton, leaves its mother’s milk, To dally with itself in idle play.

  3.  A lascivious or lewd person. (The current use.)

  † His wonton = his mistress. Obs. rare.

1540.  Palsgr., Acolastus, III. i. N iv b. He … playeth his parte stoutely or lyke a man, whyle the swete man .i. the plesantly disposed wanton leadeth wenches.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 45. Leonato. What doe you meane, my Lord? Clau. Not to be married, Not to knit my soule to an approued wanton. Ibid. (1604), Oth., IV. i. 72. Oh, ’tis the spight of hell,… To lip a wanton in a secure Cowch And to suppose her chast.

1611.  Bible, Prov. vii. Argt. 22. Solomon … sheweth the cunning of an whore, And the desperate simplicitie of a yong wanton.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Northampt. (1662), 281. She confessed her self too worthless to be his wife, yet pleaded too worthy to be his wanton.

a. 1693.  South, Serm. (1697), II. 215. An old Wanton will be doating upon Women, when he can scarce see without Spectacles.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 171, ¶ 1. Nothing would more powerfully … guard inexperience from seduction, than a just description of the condition into which the wanton plunges herself.

1858.  Merivale, Rom. Emp., l. (1865), VI. 176. The hot blood of the wanton smoked on the pavement of his gardens.

1887.  Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, xxvii. You are a wanton by nature; but you have reckoned without your host, you fair, false devil. You shall not live to dishonour me.

  4.  Phrase. To play the wanton (or † the wantons), to dally, trifle; also, † to behave lewdly or lasciviously (obs.). Similarly, to play the wanton’s part.

1529.  More, Suppl. Souls, 16 b. Yf the wench be nyce and play the wanton and make the mater strange, then wyll he bete her to bed to.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 164. Or shall we play the Wantons with our Woes, And make some pretty Match, with shedding Teares?

a. 1677.  T. Manton, Serm. Ps. cxix. (1681), 290. The word of God was appointed … to increase our reverence of God; Not that we may play the wantons with Promises, and feed our Lusts with them.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 266, ¶ 4. [Asking] Whether she was well educated, could forbear playing the Wanton with Servants and idle Fellows.

a. 1718.  Prior, Henry & Emma, 540. Did e’er my Tongue speak my unguarded Heart The least inclin’d to play the Wanton’s Part?

1852.  D. G. Mitchell, Dream Life, 120. It has very likely occurred to you, my reader, that I am playing the wanton in these sketches.

  † 5.  The wantons: wanton fits, lascivious desires, wantonness. Obs. rare.

1727.  [E. Dorrington], Philip Quarll, 53. ’Tis to be hop’d you won’t be troubled with the Wantons, and play the Trick your sister Juno did.

  6.  Comb., as wanton-like adj.

1617.  T. Campion, 3rd Bk. Ayres, xxii. Wks. (1909), 171. Though she be wilde and wanton-like in shew, Those little staines in youth I will not see.