Find the word definition

Crossword clues for gratuitous

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
gratuitous
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
gratuitous violence (=violence that there is no reason for)
▪ These films are full of gratuitous violence.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
violence
▪ Some performance art does contain gratuitous violence.
▪ Football, with its litany of gratuitous violence, is the culprit.
▪ Within a short period of time, gratuitous violence has become commonplace.
▪ That marks the public's revulsion at acts of gratuitous violence against innocent victims.
▪ Largely the element of gratuitous violence is also missing.
▪ He was well-known for his unsolicited and gratuitous violence.
▪ Student demonstrations developed an ugly edge of gratuitous violence.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He has criticised the film industry for its use of gratuitous sex and violence.
▪ It was a completely gratuitous insult -- I hadn't said anything to offend her.
▪ The gratuitous killing of dolphins must be stopped.
▪ The network refused to televise the film because it contained too much gratuitous violence.
▪ There's no point in exchanging gratuitous insults with them.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After three days of sniping and gratuitous pettiness, they allow Matty the very beginning of June or the very end.
▪ But of course I realized that this would be a pretty gratuitous move, under the circumstances.
▪ Local authorities and trade unions will need to respond to gratuitous fault finding and undermining of political leadership.
▪ Radcliffe accuses members of Bravo Two Zero of gratuitous exaggeration.
▪ The effect produced is the more telling because no gratuitous comment disturbs the images.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gratuitous

Gratuitous \Gra*tu"i*tous\a. [L. gratuitus, from gratus pleasing. See Grate, a., Gratis.]

  1. Given without an equivalent or recompense; conferred without valuable consideration; granted without pay, or without claim or merit; not required by justice.

    We mistake the gratuitous blessings of Heaven for the fruits of our own industry.
    --L'Estrange.

  2. Not called for by the circumstances; without reason, cause, or proof; adopted or asserted without any good ground; as, a gratuitous assumption.

    Acts of gratuitous self-humiliation.
    --De Quincye. -- Gra*tu"i*tous*ly, adv. -- Gra*tu"i*tous*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
gratuitous

1650s, "freely bestowed," from Latin gratuitus "done without pay, spontaneous, voluntary," from gratus "pleasing, agreeable," from gratia "favor" (see grace (n.)). Sense of "uncalled for, done without good reason" is first recorded 1690s.

Wiktionary
gratuitous

a. 1 Given freely; unearned. 2 Not call for by the circumstances; uncalled-for; without reason, cause, or proof; adopted or asserted without any good ground; unjustified.

WordNet
gratuitous
  1. adj. without cause; "a gratuitous insult"

  2. costing nothing; "complimentary tickets" [syn: complimentary, costless, free, gratis(p)]

  3. unnecessary and unwarranted; "a strikers' tent camp...was burned with needless loss of life" [syn: needless, uncalled-for]

Usage examples of "gratuitous".

North chapter in suburban Laval continues the tradition of mindless, gratuitous violence practiced by outlaw motorcycle gangs in rural Quebec.

Objection 1: It would seem that the gratuitous graces were not in Christ.

But the gratuitous graces would seem to be certain participations, bestowed distributively and particularly upon divers subjects, according to 1 Cor.

Therefore it would seem that there were no gratuitous graces in Christ.

Further, gratuitous graces are ordained to the benefit of the faithful.

Hence it is clear that all the gratuitous graces were most excellently in Christ, as in the first and chief teacher of the faith.

Secondly, predestination may be considered as regards its temporal effect, which is some gratuitous gift of God.

Not contented with choosing a name of classical origin for itself, it invented one for the whole community of innocent physicians, assuring them, to their great surprise, that they were all ALLOPATHISTS, whether they knew it or not, and including all the illustrious masters of the past, from Hippocrates down to Hunter, under the same gratuitous title.

In the fulness of his vanity and wit, Wylo began to make gratuitous fun of Yan-coo, who fretted and fumed and terrified the piccaninnies with still more hideous debils-debils.

To everyone's astonishment, the Thek answered her, and then compounded the surprise by a second gratuitous command.

Therefore it is said that he was born "according to the flesh,"-not because such births are not the gifts of God, nor His handiwork, whose creative wisdom" reaches," as it is written, "from one end to another mightily, and sweetly cloth she order all things," 772 but because, in a case in which the gift of God, which was not due to men and was the gratuitous largess of grace, was to be conspicuous, it was requisite that a son be given in a way which no effort of nature could compass.

Such extravagance and gratuitous display is the most urgent tendency of late capitalist culture, even as it is of arms races and sexual selection in biological evolution.

The ghostcallers who performed in the open-air forums were mostly fakes: crowds paid to see skin and a great deal of gratuitous thrashing about, and to feel a thrill of danger without ever actually experiencing any.

Indeed, it is sometimes laid down generally, in reputable text-books, that a gratuitous bailment does not change the possession, but leaves it in the bailor.

Or was his passage so purely gratuitous that even to interpret it as an illustration of Grand-Tutorial gratuitousness was to give it false significance?