extravagant Hear it!

extravagant Definition

ex·trava·gant (--gənt)

adjective

  1. Obsolete straying beyond bounds; wandering
  2. going beyond reasonable limits; excessive or unrestrained extravagant demands
  3. too ornate or showy extravagant designs
  4. costing or spending too much; wasteful

Etymology: ME & Anglo-Fr extravagaunt < ML extravagans, prp. of extravagari, to stray < L extra, beyond + vagari, to wander < vagus: see vague

extravagant Related Forms
ex·trav′a·gantly adverb
extravagant Synonyms

extravagant

modif.

  1. Excessive

    unrestrained, lavish, immoderate, inordinate, unreasonable, fantastic, absurd, wild, exaggerated, extreme, flamboyant, ornate, showy; see also extreme 2, profuse.

  2. Spending or costing too much

    improvident, prodigal, spendthrift, wasteful, exorbitant, overpriced, expensive; see also expensive, wasteful. See syn. study at excessive, profuse.

extravagant Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • do: Having worked out that we had barely a handful of sous between us, we didn't do anything extravagant.

Modifies a noun

  • gesture: The Lord is not seeking spontaneous extravagant gestures prompted by some tug at the heartstrings.
  • lifestyle: Funding the extravagant lifestyle of the travel editor requires a contribution of 30p.
  • costume: Her trademark was her extravagant stage costumes which featured a turban bedecked with what appeared to be the entire contents of a fruit store.
  • feast: The ceremony was followed by an extravagant feast in the Hall's ' Macau Hall ' .
  • palace: They chose Brighton as their home and set about building an extravagant palace made out of crystal and rubies.
  • claim: Then we had Cllr Robinson making extravagant claims about the benefits of the new Wrexham Road bus lane.

Modifying Another Word

  • wildly: Some wildly extravagant claims have been made about what ID cards would achieve.
  • seemingly: Let me now justify these perhaps seemingly extravagant claims.
  • somewhat: Will Mary and Peter manage this somewhat extravagant but chilling mission or is the world as we know be plunged into a living hell!
  • rather: Built in 1872, Nutfield Priory was designed to reflect the rather extravagant architecture of the Palace of Westminster.
  • increasingly: Younger children loved the surprise element as each page turned and the pop-ups grew increasingly extravagant.
  • too: Who says a seven course meal is too extravagant?

Used with adjective complement

  • seem: Nine pounds for ninety pages on a film you might have trouble finding at even the most diligently cataloged video shop often seems extravagant.
  • feel: Add a spoonful of cream if you are feeling extravagant.
  • become: The forecasts for the growth of e-learning are becoming more extravagant by the month.
  • appear: Unless sin is to be awfully punished, the language of Scripture appears extravagant.
  • sound: Time savings sound extravagant at 10 days work compressed into two hours in some cases, but VW stands by its figure.

Preposition: in

  • dress: But he says: " They were extravagant in dress and language to say the least.

Preposition: by

  • month: The forecasts for the growth of e-learning are becoming more extravagant by the month.
extravagant Quotes

These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities and eminent services; of instructing princes to know their true interest by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people: of choosing for employment persons qualified to exercise them; with many other wild impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive, and confirmed in me the old observation, that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth.

—Swift,Jonathan

Alieni appetens, sui profusus. Greedy for the belongings of others, extravagant with his own.

—Sallust in full Gaius Sallustius Crispus