- 1
In everyday English, gratuitous describes something extra that was not needed, and that often hurts or offends: gratuitous violence in a film, a gratuitous insult, a gratuitous remark. Someone added it without a good reason. It is a rather formal, critical adjective; you use it when you . Though actually, the older and legal sense is close to free — given without payment, not asked for as a right (a gratuitous promise in law). That is why the word looks like gratis. In ordinary talk, hear “uncalled-for” first.
無端的、沒必要的（常帶冒犯；不是「感激的」）
組成From Latin grātuītus, “free, given of oneself,” from grātia, “favour,” and grātus, “showing favour.”
同家族的字
- gratisthe older “free / no payment” sense still lives in this cousin
- gratuitouslythe adverb
- gratitudesame Latin favour/thanks family, but a different meaning now
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
gratuitousadj/ɡɹəˈtjuː.ɪt.əs/
- 1
Given freely; unearned.
- Also mentioned is the Rev. T. Stock, who has a tablet in St John's church [Gloucester] and "who with Raikes established the four original Sunday schools in this parish ... in 1780. From this small beginning sprung that gratuitous system of Christian instruction which has covered the face of England and Wales with schools."
- 2
Unjustified or unnecessary; not called for by the circumstances.
- gratuitous violence
- Good to see you Mr. Bond. Things've been awfully dull 'round here. […] Now you're on this. I hope we're going to have some gratuitous sex and violence!
- 3
extraneous, interpolated.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。