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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
improvident
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ These immediate-return hunter-gatherers never suffer anxiety about the future of food supplies and are characterized by improvident, generous, happy-go-lucky personalities.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Improvident

Improvident \Im*prov"i*dent\, a. [Pref. im- not + provident: cf. L. improvidus. See Provident, and cf. Imprudent.] Not provident; wanting foresight or forethought; not foreseeing or providing for the future; negligent; thoughtless; as, an improvident man.

Improvident soldiers! had your watch been good, This sudden mischief never could have fallen.
--Shak.

Syn: Inconsiderable; negligent; careless; shiftless; prodigal; wasteful.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
improvident

1510s, from im- "not" + provident. It retains a stronger connection with the "provide" aspect of Latin providere. Related: Improvidently.

Wiktionary
improvident

a. 1 failing to provide for the future; reckless 2 incautious; prone to rashness

WordNet
improvident
  1. adj. not provident; not providing for the future [ant: provident]

  2. not given careful consideration; "ill-considered actions often result in disaster"; "an ill-judged attempt" [syn: ill-considered, ill-judged, shortsighted]

Usage examples of "improvident".

In spite of court patronage Holbein did not die a rich man, and there is an impression that he was recklessly improvident in his habits.

The spreading of forty-three divisions, or half the mobile French army, from Longwy to the Swiss frontier, the whole of which was either defended by the Maginot Line forts or by the broad, swift-flowing Rhine, with its own fortress system behind it, was an improvident disposition.

The improvident expenditure of the royal patrimony, the granting the crown land or pensions to unworthy persons, is a frequent ground of complaint.

Most children instinctively knew when to push their luck and only the greedy or dentally improvident called out the Tooth Fairy around Hogswatch.

Over the whole extent of the South Seas, from one tropic to another, we find traces of a bygone state of over-population, when the resources of even a tropical soil were taxed, and even the improvident Polynesian trembled for the future.

His parents, John and Elizabeth, were middle class, genteel, but spectacularly improvident: his father, though respectably employed by the Navy Pay Office, was frequently in debt.