Witwanton

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who indulges in idle, foolish, and irreverent fancies or speculations; one who tries to be cleverly amusing but falls short. archaic

    "All epicures, witwantons, atheists."

Verb
  1. 1
    To indulge in vain, sportive, or irreverent wit; speculate idly or irreverently. archaic

    "… a citizen in Cheapside was executed as a traitor for saying he would make his son heir to the crown, though he only meant his own house, having a crown for the sign, more dangerous it is to wit-wanton it with the Majesty of God."

Example

More examples

"All epicures, witwantons, atheists."

Etymology

From wit + wanton.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.