# the prodigal son

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/the-prodigal-son
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

Someone who returns, chastened and repentant, after a period of reckless or wasteful living.

## Examples

- After years away, he came home like the prodigal son.
- The club welcomed back its prodigal son, the striker who had left for a bigger team and returned older and wiser.
- When the founder returned to the company he had abandoned a decade earlier, the press cast it as the prodigal son come home, though the board wanted rather more than a feast in return.

## Origin

The phrase comes from one of Jesus' best-known parables, in Luke 15:11-32. A younger son demands his inheritance early, leaves home, and squanders it all on "riotous living." Destitute and starving, he returns to beg for work as a servant — and his father, overjoyed, welcomes him back as a son and throws a feast. The word prodigal means wastefully extravagant, and it describes the son's spending rather than his return. The story's real weight falls on the reception: the father's forgiveness is instant and complete, to the visible irritation of the dutiful elder brother who never left. English adopted "the prodigal son" for anyone who comes back after a spell of reckless behaviour or long absence — the returning wanderer, welcomed home. The phrase carries both the recklessness that came before and the reconciliation that follows.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.