Definition

Dissolute means lacking moral restraint, indulging in sensual pleasures, or engaging in immoral behavior. It can also refer to someone who is carefree or dissipated in their way of living.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage

Excerpts from News Articles

Polly had a lot more fun. Helen is an oppressed Brontë woman in Victorian England, married to a dissolute man, who falls in love with a much more honourable working farmer from the gentry. It was controversial because it’s really a novel about a woman getting out of an abusive marriage.

Logo 2023-04-13 The Guardian

Nationalism, racism and certain views about class are examples of the inherently oppressive quality of essentialism. Economic and social thinkers (sometimes inspired by misunderstandings of Darwin) used to argue that members of the working classes (sometimes referred to as the “lower orders”) were inherently stupid and dissolute , so it was doing them a favour to keep them working in the factories and pits for long hours, because only in that way would they ever be productive.

Logo 2023-04-17 The Conversation

Set in Oaxaca on the eve of WWII, Under the Volcano follows the depressed and dissolute British consul Geoffrey Firmin as he drifts through the demimonde steeped in equal parts self-loathing and mezcal; the book is so overgrown and humid with atmosphere and mood one almost feels hungover while reading it. The 1984 movie, however, limited by screen conventions of the day, has none of the grit, and little of the darkness that so distinguishes its source material.

Logo 2023-04-25 Literary Hub