Lacking moral restraint; indulgent in sensual pleasures and vices. It describes someone who lives without regard for moral standards, often engaging in excessive drinking, promiscuity, or other excesses.
From Latin 'dissolutus,' past participle of 'dissolvere' meaning 'to loosen, dissolve' (dis- 'apart' + solvere 'to loosen'). The metaphor suggests moral bonds have been dissolved or loosened.
Dissolute = 'dis-' + 'solute' - like a solution that's been dissolved, moral standards have dissolved away! Think of a character in a novel who's given up all restraint and lives only for pleasure.
Dissolute historically carried gendered moral judgment, often applied to women's sexual autonomy as 'vice' while identical behavior in men was unremarkable or celebrated.
Use neutrally to describe actual behavior (lack of restraint) without gendered moral loading. Avoid implying sexual misconduct as inherently worse in women.
["unrestrained","intemperate","self-indulgent"]
Women labeled 'dissolute' were often punished while male equivalents escaped censure—a pattern of asymmetric moral policing that feminist scholarship has documented across Victorian and earlier literature.
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