Word: wanton
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...violent tumult; a confused mass of swarming legs, snapping claws, tails curving and clashing, threatening or fondling, it is hard to say which. All, large and small alike, take part in the brawl; it might be a battle to the death, a general massacre; and it is just a wanton frolic...
...brown obscurity of the painting glowed faintly with candlelight and with rose, blue and yellow waistcoats. The clock on the wall pointed to 2 a.m. and everyone seemed to be having a splendid time splicing the main brace-except for an old salt named Jonas Wanton. Jonas had passed out cold, but he remained a center of attention: one wassailer was being sick beside him, while Stephen Hopkins (who was later to sign the Declaration of Independence for Rhode Island) blessed his bald head with grog...
...Skin of Our Teeth, she brought off a brilliant piece of comedy as Sabina, the eternal wanton. But she lacks the stability and discipline to keep her gift under control over a long period. Her performances fluctuate more than most after the opening night. Says a friend: "The longer she plays in something, the less you see of the play, the more you see of Tallulah." She has turned Private Lives into a one-woman show-at once the triumph of a personality and the surrender of an actress. Says she: "I'm Tallulah in this play...
Boston was shaken by some old phrases from Playwright Noel Coward. The censor banned two quaint lines from his 15-year-old Design For Living (which played Boston uncensored in the early '305). One referred to a "wanton abode," the other to an "unpremeditated roll...
...they appear ill-minded, to watch them narrowly . . ." Among the early "Rules and Regulations of Harvard College," issued at about the same time, was one enjoining students to "be slow to speak, and eschew not only oaths, lies and uncertain rumours, but likewise all idle, foolish, bitter scoffing, frothy, wanton words and offensive gestures...