reckless

• rechless, retchless (obsolete)

From Middle English rekles, reckeles, rekkeles, (also recheles), from Old English rēcelēas (“reckless, careless, negligent”), equivalent to reck +‎ -less. Cognate with West Frisian roekeleas (“reckless”), Dutch roekeloos (“reckless”), German Low German ruuklos (“careless”), German ruchlos (“careless, notorious”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛkləs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkləs

reckless (comparative recklesser or more reckless, superlative recklessest or most reckless)

1. Careless or heedless; headstrong or rash.
2. Indifferent or oblivious to danger or the consequences thereof.
   • 2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 31 July 2018:

     Escalation is the film’s nuclear energy source. It’s there, of course, in the downright lunatic stunts performed by [Tom] Cruise, again defying good sense and his own advancing years to top his previous feats of reckless self-endangerment.

• reckful

• clerkess