improvident, a.
(ɪmˈprɒvɪdənt)
[f. im-2 + provident: cf. prec., and L. imprōvidus not foreseeing, improvident.]
1. Of persons, their actions, etc.: Unforeseeing; that does not foresee or forecast the future.
| 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 5 We finde yonge people be moche improvydent. 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars iii. xxix, When men well have fed, th' blood being warme, Then are they most improvident of harme. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 25 They could not have been so improvident, as not to foresee the main inconveniences that must ensue. 1795 Ld. Auckland Corr. (1862) III. 306 The improvident, undignified, and unwise conduct of the German powers. |
2. Not circumspect; heedless; unwary.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. i. 58 Improuident Souldiors, had your Watch been good, This sudden Mischiefe neuer could haue falne. 1625 J. Glanvill Voy. Cadiz (Camden) 58 They cutt of some few of our improvident and stragling men. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 162 Behold..what the improvident curiosity of men hath thought on. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 50 There is imminent danger of his employing that strength to improvident or oppressive purposes. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lv. (1862) V. 10 Amphipolis had been once lost by the improvident watch of Thucydidês and Euklês: it was now again lost by the improvident concessions of Nikias. |
3. That fails to provide for future needs; thriftless.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 110 So improuident as not to put Corne in the ground for their bread, but trusted to the store. 1788 Priestley Lect. Hist. v. xxxviii. 279 Great numbers..will be improvident, spending every thing they have in the most extravagant manner. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1837) II. 199 They who live from hand to mouth, will most frequently become improvident. 1873 H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. xv. 366 The English people are complained of as improvident. Very few of them lay by in anticipation of times when work is slack. |
Hence imˈprovidentness (Bailey vol. II, 1727).