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IMPRUDENCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A lack of caution in practical affairs
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("imprudence" is a kind of...):
incaution; incautiousness (the trait of forgetting or ignoring possible danger)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "imprudence"):
heedlessness; mindlessness; rashness (the trait of acting rashly and without prudence)
improvidence; shortsightedness (a lack of prudence and care by someone in the management of resources)
Antonym:
prudence (discretion in practical affairs)
Derivation:
imprudent (not prudent or wise)
Context examples:
Oh! no, said he; it would be the extreme of imprudence.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
"Rather say your mother's imprudence, my child," said Mrs. Dashwood; "SHE must be answerable."
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was the imprudence which had brought things to extremity, and obliged her brother to give up every dearer plan in order to fly with her.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Anne herself was become hardened to such affronts; but she felt the imprudence of the arrangement quite as keenly as Lady Russell.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Miss Bingley saw all this likewise; and, in the imprudence of anger, took the first opportunity of saying, with sneering civility: Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the —shire Militia removed from Meryton?
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
His companions suggested only what could palliate imprudence, or smooth objections; and by the time they had talked it all over together, and he had talked it all over again with Emma, in their walk back to Hartfield, he was become perfectly reconciled, and not far from thinking it the very best thing that Frank could possibly have done.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Elinor scolded him, harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves, for having spent so much time with them at Norland, when he must have felt his own inconstancy.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
All that followed was the result of her imprudence; and he went off with her at last, because he could not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment, but regretting her infinitely more when all the bustle of the intrigue was over, and a very few months had taught him, by the force of contrast, to place a yet higher value on the sweetness of her temper, the purity of her mind, and the excellence of her principles.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Lady Russell had not been arrived five minutes the day before, when a full account of the whole had burst on her; but still it must be talked of, she must make enquiries, she must regret the imprudence, lament the result, and Captain Wentworth's name must be mentioned by both.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
