sb. (and a.). Also 7 spend-thrift. [f. SPEND v.1 + THRIFT sb.1 Cf. the earlier DINGTHRIFT.]
1. One who spends money profusely or wastefully; one who wastes his patrimony by foolish or lavish expenditure; an improvident or extravagantly wasteful person (freq. connoting moral worthlessness).
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 246. What would he have cost our prodigal spendthrifts, if hee had been taken upon our coasts neere Rome?
1670. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. i. Thus, as some fawning Usurer does feed With present Sums th’unwary Spendthrift’s Need.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 53, ¶ 9. Little satisfaction will be given to the Spendthrift by the encomiums which he purchases.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., IV. i. (1904), II. 11. This complaint … of the scarcity of money, is not always confined to improvident spendthrifts.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. xiv. If I fall,… there will only be a spendthrift the less to keep in the world.
1864. Bowen, Logic, ix. 278. An instance of the former is what may be called the Spendthrift’s Fallacy.
transf. 1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 324. Nature is no spendthrift, but takes the shortest way to her ends.
2. transf. One who employs or uses something lavishly or profusely; a prodigal consumer, user up, or waster, of something.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 23. Fie, what a spend-thrift is he of his tongue.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 302. But the Debaucht burner out of his dayes … is an undoubted Spend-thrift of time.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., II. 273. Thus, with indulgence most severe, she treats Us spendthrifts of inestimable time.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 297. I have been a prodigal of my best affections; a foolish prodigal—a spendthrift.
1890. Spectator, 25 Jan., 116/2. How can a man be proud of his genius without dreading that he may prove a spendthrift of that genius instead of its skilful almoner?
3. attrib. passing into adj. a. Acting as or like, having the qualities of, a spendthrift.
1607. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., I. i. Within the spend-thrift veynes of a drye Duke.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 109. Spend-thrift Fabius]… who in his youth spent his Estate, and was thence surnamed the Gulfe or (as our word is) the Spend-thrift.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk round Lond., Coffee-Houses, Wks. 1709, III. III. 40. The Spendthrift Officers.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. i. These rich plebeians are a harvest for us spendthrift nobles.
fig. 1830. Galt, Lawrie T., V. ii. (1849), 194. The common wee spendthrift fiddle.
b. Characterized or marked by excessive or improvident expenditure; wasteful.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 234. Had you no way of turning the revenue to account, but through the improvident resource of a spendthrift sale?
1838. Lytton, Leila, IV. v. The spendthrift violence of the mob was restrained.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, Pref. p. vii. As the money-lender is an inevitable figure, where habits are spendthrift and bankruptcy imminent.
Hence Spendthriftism, the state or quality of being spendthrift. Spendthrifty a., prodigal or wasteful in expenditure.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, 611. For their spend-thrifty, uncleane and ruffianlike courses.
1862. T. C. Grattan, Beaten Paths, I. 30. The Irish … felt a poor pride in acting down to the degrading level of spendthriftism and bullying.
