[f. WANTON a. and sb.]
1. intr. To sport amorously, to play lasciviously or lewdly. Also, to wanton it.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. i. 21. I will be bright and shine in Pearle and Gold, To waite vpon this new made Empresse. To waite said I? To wanton with this Queene.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 44. As if Venus in a countrey peticoate had thought to wanton it with her louely Adonis.
1665. R. Brathwait, Comm. 2 Tales, 54. He who even now, so lasciviously wantonned,… see how he is scarrified!
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., V. Wks. 1851, V. 231. On the very day of his Coronation, he abruptly withdrew himself from the Company of his Peers,… to sit wantoning in the Chamber with this Algiva.
1728. Young, Love Fame, VI. 384. Who marry to be free, to range the more, And wed one man, to wanton with a score.
b. To play sportively, heedlessly, or idly, to frolic unrestrainedly, to gambol. Also to wanton it. (Said esp. of a child or young animal.)
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 106. Yf a … Prittye lad Æneas in my court wantoned [L. luderet] ere thow Took’st this filthye fleing.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., II. i. 18. We shall Present our seruices to a fine new Prince One of these dayes, and then youl’d wanton with vs, If we would haue you.
1657. G. Thornley, Daphnis & Chloe, 53. A boy appear’d in the … grove. Naked he was, alone he was; he play’d and wantoned it about.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 554. Thy infant son her fragrant bosom prest, Hung at her knee, or wanton’d at her breast.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., I. 332. In curling wreathes, they [porpoises] wanton on the tide, Now sport aloft, now downward swiftly glide.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. clxxxiv. And I have loved thee, Ocean!… from a boy I wanton’d with thy breakers.
1820. Lamb, Elia, Christ’s Hosp. How merrily we would sally forth … and strip under the first warmth of the sun; and wanton like young dace in the streams.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., All Saints’ Day. As bloodhounds hush their baying wild To wanton with some fearless child.
c. To go idly or heedlessly up and down, over, through (a place); also, to spend one’s time carelessly.
1682. Kirchevall, trans. Nepos, Elysander, 46. They left their ships to the mercy of the winds and waves and carelessly wanton’d up and down the fields [L. dispalati in agris].
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1883), 130. The horses, camels, and guards wantoned over their tulips and other flowers, and made a terrible havoc.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., VIII. 490. Steeds, herds and flocks o’er northern regions rove, Embrown the hill and wanton thro the grove.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 91. O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown: Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, But in the North long since my nest is made.
1916. L. P. Jacks, From Human End, i. 3. Unchecked by science, humanism would treat us like guests in a hospitable mansion where we may eat and drink, work and wanton, as we please.
d. transf. of inanimate things.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. Citherea all in sedges hid, Which seeme to moue and wanton with her breath.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., ii. 174. When, like some childish wench, she [sc. the river Stour] loosely wantoning, With tricks and giddy turns seems to in-isle the shore.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VI. 302. And dancing Leaves, that wanton’d in the Wind.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. iii. 29. The wavy ringlets of her shining hair,… wantoning in and about a neck that is beautiful beyond description.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xx. A rivulet, that wantoned along the side of a winding path.
1786. Burns, Lass o’ Ballochmyle, 3. The zephyr wanton’d round the bean, And bore its fragrant sweets alang.
1796. Southey, Joan of Arc, VI. 124. When afar they … mark the distant towers of Orleans, and … many a streamer wantoning in air.
1838. Lytton, Alice, V. i. The sea-breeze wantoned amongst the quivering leaves of the chestnut-tree that overhung their seat.
e. To trifle (with something). Also quasi-trans. with out.
1589. T. Brabine, in Greene’s Menaphon (Arb.), 20. Whose warbling tunes might wanton out my woes.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. II. (1847), II. viii. 249. He found it was no longer a season for wantoning with the resentment of his successor.
2. To run into excesses or extravagances of conduct or living; to revel (in a course of action). Also with it.
1631. May, trans. Barclay’s Mirr. Mindes, I. 5. Soe that both the awe of their parents may not too sensibly decrease in them, and they not wanton it, through a suddaine, and vnexpected encrease of liberty.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 148, ¶ 2. The power [parental authority] which we are taught to honour from the first moments of reason;… and which therefore may wanton in cruelty without control. Ibid. (1752), No. 190, ¶ 10. His house was soon crowded with poets, sculptors, painters, and designers, who wantoned in unexperienced plenty.
1850. Kingsley, A. Locke, iv. Because he would not sit and starve … while those who fattened on the sweat of his brow … were wantoning on venison and champagne.
b. To indulge in extravagances of language or thought.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Coat, 50. The witty extravagances, and Rhetoricall phrases of these Fathers, were afterward interpreted to be their distilled doctrinall positions: so dangerous it is for any to wanton it with their wits in mysteries of Religion.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 2, ¶ 2. The pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is so tempting to a writer, that he cannot easily resign it.
1789. Burke, Sp. agst. W. Hastings, Wks. 1813, XV. 86. We are not persons of an age,—of a disposition … to wanton as these counsel call it; that is to invent fables concerning Indian antiquity.
1838. Macaulay, Ess., Temple (near end). For once he [Bentley] ran no risks;… he wantoned in no paradoxes.
c. transf. Of a garden, plant: To flourish profusely or extravagantly; to grow or ramble at will.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Misc. Tracts, 296/1. On the latter [garden] no decoration of art has been spared; the former wantons in all the luxuriance of nature.
1890. Conan Doyle, White Company, xviii. As though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled and wantoned over the walls.
1907. E. Gosse, Father & Son, v. 113. [A] wilderness, in which loose furze-bushes and untrimmed brambles wantoned into the likeness of trees.
d. fig. or of things (esp. Nature) personified.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 295. A Wilderness of sweets; for Nature here Wantoned as in her prime, and plaid at will Her Virgin Fancies.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. xxxiii. 409. From this root has sprung a bastard slip, known by the name of the game law, now arrived to and wantoning in it’s highest vigour.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man, II. x. 114. All nature smiles in beauty, or wantons in bounteousness for our enjoyment.
1866. B. Taylor, Poems, Mondamin. Where nature wantoned wild.
3. To deal carelessly or wastefully (with property, resources). Also trans. with away, to spend carelessly or wastefully, to dissipate (life, time, resources).
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., iv. 38–9. [Of Preaching] Humane learning being a good Hand-maide and an ill companion to divinity, who though she carry away the Jewels and Earerings of the Ægyptians, she desires to use them and not wanton with them.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Serm. Ps. lxviii. 30, Wks. 1837, V. 232. He wantons away his life foolishly, that, when he is well, will take physic to make him sick.
1669. Pepys, Diary, 28 April. With this money the King shall wanton away his time in pleasures.
1775. Johnson, Tax. no Tyr., 47. It is urged that the Americans have not the same security, and that a British Legislature may wanton with their property.
1811. J. Pratt, in R. Cecil’s Wks. (1827), I. 121. A minister has no right to wanton away the support of his family.
† 4. trans. To make wanton; to lead into extravagances of conduct, living, etc. Obs.
c. 1600. Chalkhill, Thealma & Cl. (1683), 88. For he reign’d More like a Beast than Man;… weak’ning his strength By wantoning his people, without Law Or Exercise to keep their minds in awe.
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxvi. 83. If wee sleepe, hee [the Devil] comes in dreames, and wantonneth the ill-inclining soule.
Hence Wantoning vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1596. Warner, Alb. Eng., XII. lxxiii. (1612), 304. Full fortie thousand Curtizans there, Ladies-like, do liue, That to the Pope for wantoning no small Reuenew giue.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., I. ii. 34. But since, I saw it painted on Fames wings, The Muses to be woxen Wantonings.
1624. Heywood, Gunaik., I. 5. Her embracings and wantonnings.
1701. W. Nichols, Consol. Parents, 40. The innocent Wantonings of a beloved Child.
1883. E. Gosse, 17th Cent. Stud., 134. Chance melodies that seem like mere wantonings of the air upon a wind-harp.
1901. T. R. Glover, Life & Lett. Fourth Cent., viii. 184. The story of the wantoning Dido.
