Wanton, adj. 1) playful, sportive, frolicsome: “w. modesty,” Lucr. 401. “playing in the w. air,” Pilgr. 230 and LLL IV, 3, 104. “all w. as a child, skipping and vain,” V, 2, 771. “make such w. gambols with the wind,” Merch. III, 2, 93. “a wild and w. herd,” V, 71. Wint. I, 2, 126. John III, 3, 36. R2 V, 1, 101. H4A IV, 1, 103. H4B IV, 1, 55. H6C I, 4, 74. H8 III, 2, 359. Rom. II, 6, 19. Hml. II, 1, 22. Lr. IV, 1, 38.
2) loose, light, trifling, petulant, frivolous: “dare you presume to harbour w. lines,” Gent. I, 2, 42. “the injuries of a w. time,” H4A V, 1, 50. “every idle, nice and w. reason,” H4B IV, 1, 191. “how sleek and w. you appear in every thing may bring my ruin,” H8 III, 2, 241.
3) luxuriant; luxurious: “the quaint mazes in the w. green,” Mids. II, 1, 99. “four lagging winters and four w. springs,” R2 I, 3, 214. “on the w. rushes lay you down,” H4A III, 1, 214. “a guard too w. for the head,” H4B I, 1, 148. “yond towers whose w. tops do buss the clouds,” Troil. IV, 5, 220. “now comes the w. blood up in your cheeks, they'll be in scarlet straight at any news,” Rom. II, 5, 72. “my plenteous joys, w. in fulness,” Mcb. I, 4, 34.
4) lustful, lascivious: “bewitching like the w. mermaid's song,” Ven. 777. “mine ears that to your w. talk attended,” Ven. 777 “nor could she moralize his w. sight,” Lucr. 104. “this glove to w. tricks is not inured,” Lucr. 104 “the teeming autumn . . . bearing the w. burden of the prime,” Sonn. 97, 7. “to have done some w. charm upon this man and maid,” Tp. IV, 95. “the w. stings and motions of the sense,” Meas. I, 4, 59. LLL IV, 3, 58. Mids. II, 1, 129. Shr. Ind. I, 47. All's III, 7, 18. V, 3, 211. Tw. III, 1, 18. Tw. III, 1, 18 H6A III, 1, 19. V, 1, 23. H6C III, 3, 210. R3 I, 1, 17. III, 7, 187 (Qq lustful). III, 7, 187. III, 3, 222. IV, 5, 56. Cor. II, 1, 233. Oth. I, 3, 270. “let the bloat king tempt you again to bed, pinch w. on your cheek,” Hml. III, 4, 183 (cf. Pinch). “he hath not yet made w. the night with her,” Oth. II, 3, 16.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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