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extravagance

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French extravagance, from Medieval Latin extra + vagor (“to wander”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɪkˈstɹævəɡəns/
  • Hyphenation: ex‧trav‧a‧gance
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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extravagance (countable and uncountable, plural extravagances)

  1. Excessive or superfluous expenditure of money.
  2. Prodigality, as of anger, love, expression, imagination, or demands.
    • 1803, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey:
      The visions of romance were over. Catherine was completely awakened. Henry’s address, short as it had been, had more thoroughly opened her eyes to the extravagance of her late fancies than all their several disappointments had done.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
      A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
  3. Something extravagant; something done out of extravagance.
    That luxury car is an extravagance you can't afford.
    • 2010, Jeff Dunham, All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me:
      There were no limos or extravagances at this point, because we all wanted to make as much money as possible. We played it cheap. No huge catering bills, no wild parties, not even upgraded hotel rooms. Whenever we arrived at an airport Robin would be there to meet us in a rented SUV or big sedan, and we'd head to the gig on our own.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Translations

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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extravagance f (plural extravagances)

  1. extravagance
    • 1837 Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manchefr.Wikisource, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:
      Sa curiosité et son extravagance arrivèrent à ce point qu’il vendit plusieurs arpents de bonnes terres à labourer pour acheter des livres de chevalerie à lire.
      His curiosity and his extravagance came to the point that he sold several arpents of good working land to buy books of chivalry to read.
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Further reading

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