One who recklessly wastes what has been entrusted to him — most powerfully illustrated in Jesus' parable of Luke 15, where a son demands his inheritance early (treating his father as dead), squanders it in dissolute living, falls into destitution, "comes to himself," and returns to a father who sees him "while he was still a long way off" and runs to meet him. The word is less about the son's sin and more about the father's extravagant response — which is itself called the "prodigal father" by some theologians, for the father is prodigal (lavish) in his love, his robes, his ring, his feast. The parable is a portrait of God's relationship with sinners who return: undeserved, unrestrained welcome.
PROD'IGAL, a. Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other things without necessity or use; profuse; wasteful; not frugal or economical. A prodigal man often comes to want. He that is prodigal of his time will be poor in his intellectual attainments. Prodigal is often followed by of; as prodigal of expense; prodigal of words.
The word "prodigal" is commonly misused to mean "one who goes away and returns" — as if it described the son's journey rather than his wastefulness. People say "the prodigal has returned" meaning merely "the wanderer has come home," stripping the moral content from the word. But the point of the parable is not primarily the son's departure and return — it is the lavish, unrestrained mercy of the father who represents God. Modern sentimentalism further flattens the story by skipping the son's confession ("I have sinned against heaven and before you") and jumping straight to the party, as if the feast required no repentance. The text holds both together: genuine turning and extravagant welcome.
Luke 15:13 — "Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living."
Luke 15:17 — "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!'"
Luke 15:20 — "And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him."
Luke 15:24 — "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
G811 — ἀσώτως (asōtōs): "wastefully, dissolutely, recklessly" — the adverb describing the son's spending in Luke 15:13
G4650 — σκορπίζω (skorpizō): "to scatter, squander, disperse" — implies throwing away what was gathered
"The prodigal son's greatest moment was not when the music started — it was when 'he came to himself.' Repentance preceded the feast."
"We call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but it might better be called the Parable of the Prodigal Father — for no one in the story wastes more lavishly than the father who pours out his love on an undeserving child."