libertine Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained
    debauchee; rounder.
  2. adjective satellite unrestrained by convention or morality
    debauched; dissolute; fast; degenerate; degraded; dissipated; riotous; profligate.
    • Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society
    • deplorably dissipated and degraded
    • riotous living
    • fast women

WordNet

Lib"er*tine noun
Etymology
L. libertinus freedman, from libertus one made free, fr. liber free: cf. F. libertin. See Liberal.
Definitions
  1. (Rom. Antiq.) A manumitted slave; a freedman; also, the son of a freedman.
  2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of Anabaptists, in the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, who rejected many of the customs and decencies of life, and advocated a community of goods and of women.
  3. One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee.
    Like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Shak.
  4. A defamatory name for a freethinker. Obsoles.
Lib"er*tine adjective
Etymology
L. libertinus of a freedman: cf. F. libertin. See Libertine, n.
Definitions
  1. Free from restraint; uncontrolled. Obs.
    You are too much libertine. Beau. & Fl.
  2. Dissolute; licentious; profligate; loose in morals; as, libertine principles or manners. Bacon.

Webster 1913