gratuitous

adjective gra·tu·i·tous \ grə-ˈtü-ə-təs , -ˈtyü- \

|Updated on: 9 Jun 2018

Examples: gratuitous in a Sentence

Editor's Note: These gratuitous Facts Are Free

Definition of gratuitous

1 a : given unearned or without recompense

b : not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration

has gratuitous permission to pass over private land

c : costing nothing : free

The restaurant provided a gratuitous appetizer.

2 : not called for by the circumstances : unwarranted

gratuitous insolence

a gratuitous assumption

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gratuitously

adverb

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gratuitousness

noun

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Examples of gratuitous in a Sentence

The film was criticized for its gratuitous violence.
they will throw in a gratuitous box of chocolates when you spend or more in their shop

Recent Examples of gratuitous from the Web

Three more huge hits that day—resulting a league-record day of fines—caused the NFL to show a four-minute video to every team decrying gratuitous hits.

— SI.com, "Peter King’s Favorite Stories, from SI and The MMQB," 28 May 2018
For all of Game of Thrones' problems during those seasons of endless gratuitous rape scenes, the show apparently got one thing very right with regard to women.

— refinery29.com, "Game Of Thrones Paid Emilia Clarke Equally Since Day One," 16 May 2018
The violence that spawned that photograph was hatefully gratuitous.

— hilary hughes, Billboard, "'Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story' Brings 'One of the Most Important Conversations' to Tribeca Film Festival," 21 Apr. 2018
Previously, violence in the Westworld park was gratuitous by design: there were no consequences to harming hosts, and humans couldn’t be hurt at all.

— bryan bishop, The Verge, "Westworld season 2: our spoiler-free review," 20 Apr. 2018
For years Trump treated Cohen poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired, according to interviews with a half-dozen people familiar with their relationship.

— Anchorage Daily News, "Cohen said he’d take a bullet for Trump. Maybe not anymore.," 21 Apr. 2018
For good measure, still in mid-flail, LeBron takes a gratuitous swipe at Bogey’s face.

— gregg doyel, Indianapolis Star, "Doyel: Who can stop LeBron? No one. But Pacers Bogdanovic has done a better job than most.," 17 Apr. 2018
But the research is quite interesting, made even better by the inclusion of a gratuitous polar bear picture.

— chris lee, Ars Technica, "Porous silk fiber traps heat, hides a rabbit from IR camera," 4 Apr. 2018
But, with Trump’s gratuitous cruelty added to Tillerson’s missteps, Pompeo will get to Foggy Bottom with the prestige and clout of his office at its lowest ever.

— heather hurlburt, Daily Intelligencer, "The Mess Rex Tillerson Is Leaving Behind," 13 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gratuitous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

These gratuitous Facts Are Free

Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the middle of the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, often used in such phrases as "a gratuitous insult" or to describe elements of a story that are not relevant to the plot.