Dictionary

recklessly en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *rōkijaną Proto-West Germanic *rōkijan Old English rēċan Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Old English rēċelēas Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Old English rēċelēaslīċe Middle English reklesly English recklessly From Middle English reklesly, from Old English rēcelēaslīce; equivalent to reckless + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a rash or reckless manner, without regard for cost or consequence
   • But some Democrats are raising red flags about DOGE staffers “infiltrating multiple agencies at once,” and “recklessly and haphazardly combining data without any verification or validation,” as one senior House Oversight Committee Democratic staffer put it to CNN. 2025 April 25, Priscilla Alvarez, Sunlen Serfaty, Marshall Cohen and Tami Luhby, “DOGE is building a master database for immigration enforcement, sources say”, in CNN:
   • Brooks was also convicted of 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety with the use of a dangerous weapon, six counts of fatal hit and run, two counts of felony bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor domestic battery. 2022 October 26, Christina Zdanowicz, Claudia Dominguez, Lauren M. Johnson and Sara Smart, “The Waukesha victims included an 8-year-old boy, a loving grandmother and a woman excited to make her debut in the Dancing Grannies”, in CNN:
   • Zoe popped her head up to watch in terror through a little window, as they spread chaos and carnage in their wake, not to mention quite a few broken-off wing mirrors. Burt was driving so recklessly, she was frightened he would kill them both. 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen. 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056:
2. With contempt for the rights, feelings, or well-being of others.

Forms

Translations (20)

ru опроме́тчиво (with contempt of others) · es temerariamente (in a reckless manner) · pl bez głowy (in a reckless manner) · es irresponsablemente (in a reckless manner) · fi edesvastuuttomasti (with contempt of others) · de leichtsinnig (in a reckless manner) · fi piittaamattomasti (with contempt of others) · ru опроме́тчиво (in a reckless manner) · fi rämäpäisesti (in a reckless manner) · ka წინდაუხედავად (in a reckless manner) · bg безразсъдно (in a reckless manner) · es de hoz y coz (in a reckless manner) · ka დაუდევრად (in a reckless manner) · es a troche y moche (in a reckless manner) · fi uhkarohkeasti (in a reckless manner) · es a las bravas (in a reckless manner) · ca temeràriament (in a reckless manner) · de rücksichtslos (with contempt of others) · pt irresponsavelmente (in a reckless manner) · es precipitadamente (with contempt of others)