Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being reckless or heedless; perverse or desperate rashness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or quality of being reckless or heedless, of taking unnecessary risks.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the trait of giving little thought to danger

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English reklesnes, from Old English rēcelēasnes ("recklessness, carelessness, negligence"), equivalent to reckless +‎ -ness.

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Examples

  • The CBN had, also on August 14, sacked the chief executive officers of five banks and their executive directors, for what it described as recklessness and laxity in the management of the institutions.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2009

  • The CBN had, also on August 14, sacked the chief executive officers of five banks and their executive directors, for what it described as recklessness and laxity in the management of the institutions.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2009

  • At an appearance in the East Room at the White House today, President Obama expressed his outrage, noting that AIG is in financial distress, and in need of taxpayer money, because of what he called recklessness and greed.

    unknown title 2009

  • The "recklessness" is obvious, but he's also very empathic.

    The /Filmcast: After Dark - Ep. 88 - Making the Crazies and Deconstructing The Hurt Locker (GUEST: Breck Eisner, Director of The Crazies) | /Film 2010

  • Murphy's contention that over-zealousness bordering on recklessness is to blame is better, though even his argument contained a flaw when he suggested that some teams were more to blame than others.

    Tackling is still nowhere as hard as in the bad old days Paul Wilson 2010

  • The only difference between audacity and recklessness is whether or not you win, and in this case a clever Union officer tricked Lee into making an audacious move that ultimately became a reckless endeavour.

    A Sorrowful Tale of High Velocity 2008

  • Their short-term recklessness led to our long-term disaster.

    Joseph A. Palermo: Wall Street and Goldman Sachs Party On 2009

  • That recklessness is becoming more apparent every day, as the economy worsens, the deficits soar, and more and more Americans die in a war that the President stated was officially over as he strutted like a popinjay up and down the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

    Balkinization 2003

  • That recklessness is becoming more apparent every day, as the economy worsens, the deficits soar, and more and more Americans die in a war that the President stated was officially over as he strutted like a popinjay up and down the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

    Balkinization 2003

  • It may be well that they should distinctly understand that, whatever may be the rabid utterances of a portion of our own press, which almost rivals their own in recklessness of assertion and

    London: Saturday, December 31, 1864 1864

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