Gratuitous
adjective
Done without any good reason.
We were all shocked by his gratuitous aggression towards the staff.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous violence
- gratuitous comment
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Given freely or unpaid.
Gratuitous services provided by the lawyer to the non-profit organization.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous service
- gratuitous assistance
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Unnecessary or unimportant.
The list of gratuitous details added nothing substantial to the story.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous information
- gratuitous detail
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Done without any good reason.
We were all shocked by his gratuitous aggression towards the staff.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous violence
- gratuitous comment
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Given freely or unpaid.
Gratuitous services provided by the lawyer to the non-profit organization.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous service
- gratuitous assistance
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Unnecessary or unimportant.
The list of gratuitous details added nothing substantial to the story.
Often appears as...
- gratuitous information
- gratuitous detail
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/2Negative Connotation
Often signals disapproval, suggesting something is excessive or unwelcome.
His speech included a gratuitous amount of personal criticism.
Pro Tip 2/2Unprovoked Action
Implies an action was taken without a rational motive or provocation.
The company's gratuitous lawsuit puzzled everyone.
Pro Tip 1/2Negative Connotation
Often signals disapproval, suggesting something is excessive or unwelcome.
His speech included a gratuitous amount of personal criticism.
Pro Tip 2/2Unprovoked Action
Implies an action was taken without a rational motive or provocation.
The company's gratuitous lawsuit puzzled everyone.
Pro Tip 1/2Negative Connotation
Often signals disapproval, suggesting something is excessive or unwelcome.
His speech included a gratuitous amount of personal criticism.
Pro Tip 2/2Unprovoked Action
Implies an action was taken without a rational motive or provocation.
The company's gratuitous lawsuit puzzled everyone.
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Video examples
Paola Antonelli: Why I...
If it's in the art collection, it might be a critique of the killing instrument. So it's very interesting. But we are acquiring our critical dimension also in design, so maybe one day we'll be able to acquire also the guns. But here, in this particular case, we decided, you know, with Kate and Paul, that we would have no gratuitous violence.
Video examples
Why nations should...
added a gratuitous subtitle saying, The next 21st-century power." And I just don't think that's what India's all about, or should be all about. Indeed, what worries me is the entire notion of world leadership seems to me terribly archaic. It's redolent of James Bond movies and Kipling ballads.
Video examples
TED2015 in review PIPE...
made jokes about that session I look like an and I don't want to do that I don't want to do that the thank you for not killing us all Award goes to Lois dar tell who started an open fire in the midst of a lumberyard that was a really interesting choice gratuitous use of old photos shirtless
Video examples
Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was...
And it's not completely gratuitous, because "wok" and "roll" -- Chinese food and Japanese foods, so it kind of works out. And Americans love their Chinese food so much, they've actually brought it into space. NASA, for example, serves thermostabilized sweet-and-sour pork
Video examples
Who are you, really? The...
But instead of pointing at you, which would be gratuitous and intrusive, I thought I would tell you a few facts and stories, in which you may catch a glimpse of yourself. I'm in the field of research known as personality psychology,
Video examples
Alexandra Fuller: Born...
you don't get emotionally involved in the in the recreation of course you do I mean that but been gratuitous about it versus having ones humanity very different thinking that it belongs to you taking some kind of self-important
Video examples
Praising slowness - Carl...
them up for the world but I've also over the last year or so got in touch with my inner tortoise and what that means is that I don't I no longer overload myself gratuitous Lane my default mode is no
Video examples
Pointing to the future...
Let me see if I can help us find the circuit board. Mind you, it's a sort of gratuitous field-stripping exercise, but we do it in the lab all the time. All right.
Video examples
Carl Honore: In praise...
But I've also, over the last year or so, got in touch with my inner tortoise. And what that means is that I no longer overload myself gratuitously.
Video examples
What will future jobs...
The writer George Eliot cautioned us that, among all forms of mistake, prophesy is the most gratuitous. The person that we would all acknowledge
Video examples
Paola Antonelli: Why I...
If it's in the art collection, it might be a critique of the killing instrument. So it's very interesting. But we are acquiring our critical dimension also in design, so maybe one day we'll be able to acquire also the guns. But here, in this particular case, we decided, you know, with Kate and Paul, that we would have no gratuitous violence.
Video examples
Why nations should...
added a gratuitous subtitle saying, The next 21st-century power." And I just don't think that's what India's all about, or should be all about. Indeed, what worries me is the entire notion of world leadership seems to me terribly archaic. It's redolent of James Bond movies and Kipling ballads.
Video examples
TED2015 in review PIPE...
made jokes about that session I look like an and I don't want to do that I don't want to do that the thank you for not killing us all Award goes to Lois dar tell who started an open fire in the midst of a lumberyard that was a really interesting choice gratuitous use of old photos shirtless
Video examples
Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was...
And it's not completely gratuitous, because "wok" and "roll" -- Chinese food and Japanese foods, so it kind of works out. And Americans love their Chinese food so much, they've actually brought it into space. NASA, for example, serves thermostabilized sweet-and-sour pork
Video examples
Who are you, really? The...
But instead of pointing at you, which would be gratuitous and intrusive, I thought I would tell you a few facts and stories, in which you may catch a glimpse of yourself. I'm in the field of research known as personality psychology,
Video examples
Alexandra Fuller: Born...
you don't get emotionally involved in the in the recreation of course you do I mean that but been gratuitous about it versus having ones humanity very different thinking that it belongs to you taking some kind of self-important
Video examples
Praising slowness - Carl...
them up for the world but I've also over the last year or so got in touch with my inner tortoise and what that means is that I don't I no longer overload myself gratuitous Lane my default mode is no
Video examples
Pointing to the future...
Let me see if I can help us find the circuit board. Mind you, it's a sort of gratuitous field-stripping exercise, but we do it in the lab all the time. All right.
Video examples
Carl Honore: In praise...
But I've also, over the last year or so, got in touch with my inner tortoise. And what that means is that I no longer overload myself gratuitously.
Video examples
What will future jobs...
The writer George Eliot cautioned us that, among all forms of mistake, prophesy is the most gratuitous. The person that we would all acknowledge
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Chris Chibnall
English Writer
I don't ever want to be gratuitous, for the sake of being gratuitous, but when it serves the stories and the characters, it's nice to be able to do that, realistically and with credibility. You don't want to do it for the sake of it, or shoe-horn it in. But, it's a good tool to have in the toolbox.
Quote examples
Shanola Hampton
American Actress
When you're on a show that is so free with the body and nudity, you get a guest director every episode, and you want to make sure that they're not trying to one-up each other. It will take away the integrity of our show and the character if you're just gratuitously showing boobs.
Quote examples
Steven Hatfill
American Scientist
I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process. I will not be railroaded.
Quote examples
Ruth Bradley
Irish Actress
I wouldn't do really gratuitous nudity. When I was in my late teens, you'd read stuff and be like, 'That character serves no purpose except being naked', so that would not be something I'd want to do. It's pointless for me.
Quote examples
Man Ray
American Photographer
An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.
Quote examples
Laurell K. Hamilton
American Writer
Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development.
Quote examples
Joyce Carol Oates
American Novelist
There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.
Quote examples
John Updike
American Novelist
There should always be something gratuitous about art, just as there seems to be, according to the new-wave cosmologists, something gratuitous about the universe.
Quote examples
Barbara Demick
American Journalist
The scene that has raised the most objections in 'The Interview' is at the very end, when Kim's head dissolves into flames. To me, it feels gratuitous.
Quote examples
Simone Weil
French Philosopher
To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.
Quote examples
Chris Chibnall
English Writer
I don't ever want to be gratuitous, for the sake of being gratuitous, but when it serves the stories and the characters, it's nice to be able to do that, realistically and with credibility. You don't want to do it for the sake of it, or shoe-horn it in. But, it's a good tool to have in the toolbox.
Quote examples
Shanola Hampton
American Actress
When you're on a show that is so free with the body and nudity, you get a guest director every episode, and you want to make sure that they're not trying to one-up each other. It will take away the integrity of our show and the character if you're just gratuitously showing boobs.
Quote examples
Steven Hatfill
American Scientist
I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process. I will not be railroaded.
Quote examples
Ruth Bradley
Irish Actress
I wouldn't do really gratuitous nudity. When I was in my late teens, you'd read stuff and be like, 'That character serves no purpose except being naked', so that would not be something I'd want to do. It's pointless for me.
Quote examples
Man Ray
American Photographer
An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.
Quote examples
Laurell K. Hamilton
American Writer
Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development.
Quote examples
Joyce Carol Oates
American Novelist
There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.
Quote examples
John Updike
American Novelist
There should always be something gratuitous about art, just as there seems to be, according to the new-wave cosmologists, something gratuitous about the universe.
Quote examples
Barbara Demick
American Journalist
The scene that has raised the most objections in 'The Interview' is at the very end, when Kim's head dissolves into flames. To me, it feels gratuitous.
Quote examples
Simone Weil
French Philosopher
To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.
Example 1 of 10
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