What's the difference between gratuitous and wanton?

Gratuitous


Definition:

  • (a.) Given without an equivalent or recompense; conferred without valuable consideration; granted without pay, or without claim or merit; not required by justice.
  • (a.) Not called for by the circumstances; without reason, cause, or proof; adopted or asserted without any good ground; as, a gratuitous assumption.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is concluded that uric acid is the only effective physiological inducer, while its 2 and 8 thio-analogues serve as gratuitous inducers.
  • (2) It is proposed that the ability of P. putida to tolerate the unusually high degree of possible gratuitous induction observed for camphor catabolism may be related to the infrequent occurrence of bicyclic ring structures in nature.
  • (3) But one has a right to demand what purpose it fulfils," wrote the Times's critic, who felt that Bond's "blockishly naturalistic piece, full of dead domestic longueurs and slavishly literal bawdry", would "supply valuable ammunition to those who attack modern drama as half-baked, gratuitously violent and squalid".
  • (4) Induction of ethanolamine ammonia-lyase formation in Escherichia coli required both the ethanolamine and vitamin B12, and was gratuitous during growth on glycerol.
  • (5) There was a sense of it being gratuitously anti-science from someone whose locus in the debate wasn't clear.
  • (6) First, galactose repression of beta-galactosidase synthesis was markedly enhanced in bacteria tested subsequent to gratuitous induction of the galactose-degrading enzymes with d-fucose.
  • (7) L-Malate was the only physiological inducer and bromosuccinate was a gratuitous inducer of dicarboxylic acid transport in a succinic dehydrogenase deficient mutant.
  • (8) Induction of penicillinase (beta-lactamase) in Bacillus licheniformis 749 by 2-(2'-carboxyphenyl)-benzoyl-6-aminopenicillanic acid (CBAP) was examined, since this compound was reported to be a gratuitous inducer of penicillinase in Staphylococcus aureus.
  • (9) The retired appeal court judge's report, which runs to three volumes, found that troops from 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment inflicted "gratuitous" violence on a group of 10 Iraqi civilians, who were kicked and hit in turn, "causing them to emit groans and other noises and thereby playing them like musical instruments".
  • (10) This budget isn't just going to be random pain, gratuitous pain, pain for the hell of it, sharp pain, stabbing pain ... it's pain – with a purpose.
  • (11) The authors predict a further rapid spreading of this infection in this risk group and postulated gratuitous providing of addicts with dispensable syringes and needles and condoms, and providing systematic intensive training of the personnel of dehabituation treatment institutions as well as extensive informational education of the addicts.
  • (12) Will the Australian government investigate whether it happened?” Abbott: “Well, we have very good relations with the Indonesian government and we’ve got very good cooperation with the Indonesian government when it comes to stopping people smuggling because, amongst other things, we haven’t offered the gratuitous insult to Indonesia that our predecessors did by, amongst other things, stopping the live cattle trade in panic at a television program.” Mitchell: “Prime Minister, will the Australian government investigate whether it happened?” Abbott: “Um, Neil, what we are doing is saving life at sea.
  • (13) Another person went to the gym at lunch time and couldn’t get out ... One member doesn’t have the right to revoke the pass of another member’s staff.” Chris Bryant, the former shadow leader of the House of Commons, said it was a terrible way to treat staff members, branding it petty and “vindictive, gratuitous nastiness”.
  • (14) In the absence of any known role for the products of the ilvGMEDA operon when repressing levels of branched-chain amino acids are present, there appears to be only a gratuitous role for the transcription at ilvEp.
  • (15) In half of the cases, combination of tissue signs of obstructive and calcificating pancreatitis were observed, so it is considered gratuitous to separate sharply the two forms of chronic pancreatitis.
  • (16) This compound also serves as gratuitous inducer of the catabolic acetylornithine aminotransferase.
  • (17) Their specific submission to Leveson lauded only "free speech that does no gratuitous harm".
  • (18) How can he live with himself after imposing such gratuitous pain upon the people of this nation?
  • (19) If you want to see how they turned out, pop over to Twitter where I am will posting gratuitous dough shots at @jnraeside .
  • (20) So I have a very healthy, activist general tension in me which feels that no, this is not gratuitous, it is important to keep this in focus."

Wanton


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Untrained; undisciplined; unrestrained; hence, loose; free; luxuriant; roving; sportive.
  • (v. t.) Wandering from moral rectitude; perverse; dissolute.
  • (v. t.) Specifically: Deviating from the rules of chastity; lewd; lustful; lascivious; libidinous; lecherous.
  • (v. t.) Reckless; heedless; as, wanton mischief.
  • (n.) A roving, frolicsome thing; a trifler; -- used rarely as a term of endearment.
  • (n.) One brought up without restraint; a pampered pet.
  • (n.) A lewd person; a lascivious man or woman.
  • (v. i.) To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
  • (v. i.) To sport in lewdness; to play the wanton; to play lasciviously.
  • (v. t.) To cause to become wanton; also, to waste in wantonness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We simply do whatever nature needs and will work with anyone that wants to help wildlife.” His views might come as a surprise to some of the RSPB’s 1.1 million members, who would have been persuaded by its original pledge “to discourage the wanton destruction of birds”; they would equally have been a surprise to the RSPB’s detractors in the shooting world.
  • (2) He pointed out that the eighth amendment of the US constitution “prohibits the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain through torture, barbarous methods, or methods resulting in a lingering death”.
  • (3) The real offense, for which no one has been charged, is the wanton disregard for human life that Manning exposed.
  • (4) We’re back to those flappers, with their jobs and their knee-length skirts and their dangerous opinions about politics, or the girls of the 1960s destroying the traditional family by wantonly taking the pill.
  • (5) Long said: "This is not an attack on an individual or on a party, but a wanton attack on the democratic process.
  • (6) In the 1930s the Spanish city of Guernica became a symbol of wanton murder and destruction.
  • (7) The wanton slaughter of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq and the severe and even lethal torture of Afghan detainees generated, at worst, shockingly short jail time for the killers and, usually, little more than letters of reprimand.
  • (8) What distinguishes games from books, or films, is that the dodgy sexual politics and wanton violence of one is used as a stick to bash them all.
  • (9) "The president commiserates with all the families who lost loved ones in the heinous attacks and extends his heartfelt sympathies to all those who suffered injuries or lost their properties during the wanton assaults on Bauchi and Kaduna States," said a statement.
  • (10) But that doesn't mean that halting and reversing the wanton growth of shorthaul flights is an act of class war.
  • (11) Here in Bristol we could use the old railway lines that used to thread their way into the city, before Beeching and Marples ripped them up – another example of wanton government lack of foresight.
  • (12) To the contrary, they are the inevitable by-products of societies that recruit every institution in service of defending even the most wanton abuses by the state.
  • (13) Later at university, there were nice Protestant ladies and wanton atheists; taxpayer-funded Guinness and Spear of Destiny .
  • (14) Three hours of sexual and pharmacological excess, wanton debauchery, unfathomable avarice, gleeful misogyny, extreme narcotic brinksmanship, malfeasance and lawless behaviour is a lot to take, and some have complained of the film's relentlessness, which, if understood in formal terms, I think may be one of its main aims.
  • (15) Humankind must become accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home.
  • (16) Young children were expected to carry out gruelling domestic chores and were wantonly punished, she says.
  • (17) An influential Communist party journal has compared online rumours to Cultural Revolution-style denunciations and warned of the need to curb "wanton defamation" of authority, as China intensifies its campaign to control social media.
  • (18) What we are seeing in London tonight, the wanton vandalism, smashing of windows, has nothing to do with peaceful protest."
  • (19) On the periphery of all the wanton lust and questionable puns stands Evie (Antonia Thomas), who’s pretty, sweet and has a camera; the holy trinity for chumps like Dylan.
  • (20) Following release of the Mosul video showing wanton destruction of antiquities, there has been a lot of email traffic between Libyans working in archaeology and Arab-world representatives on the major international heritage bodies,” said David Mattingly, a professor at the University of Leicester, who has spent years excavating Roman ruins in Libya.