gormandize

American  

[gawr-muhn-dahyz, gawr-muhn-deez] / ˈgɔr mənˌdaɪz, ˌgɔr mənˈdiz /

especially British, gormandise

verb (used with or without object)

gormandized, gormandizing

1. to eat greedily or ravenously.

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noun

1. gourmandise.

gormandize British  

verb

1. to eat (food) greedily and voraciously

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noun

1. a less common variant of gourmandise

Other Word Forms

• gormandizer
  noun

Etymology

Origin of gormandize

1540–50; < French gourmandise (noun), equivalent to Middle French gourmand gourmand + -ise noun suffix later taken as v. suffix -ize

Explanation

To gormandize is to eat lots and lots of really tasty food. If your idea of a perfect night out is an enormous meal at a fancy restaurant, then you love to gormandize. Although gormandize comes from the Middle French word gourmand, it's not related to the similar-looking gourmet. While a gourmet is someone who enjoys fine food, a person who tends to gormandize also loves delicious fare, but puts the emphasis on quantity. So a few bites of sashimi or foie gras might make you a gourmet, but eating them until you feel sick is gormandizing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gormandize gormandized gormandizing

Hawaiian oranges were delicious, although "I seldom eat more than 10 or 15 at a sitting, however, because I despise to see anybody gormandize."

From Time Magazine Archive

They did not gormandize, for gluttony leads to a fit of indigestion, and that leads to bad temper.

From Mated from the Morgue A tale of the Second Empire by John Augustus O'Shea

Once a year, at the village club dinner, they gormandize to repletion.

From The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies by Sir Walter Besant

Well, thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:— What, Jessica!—Thou shalt not gormandize, As thou hast done with me;—What, Jessica!—

From The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio: What, Jessica!—thou shalt not gormandize, As thou hast done with me;—What, Jessica!—

From Shakespeare's play of the Merchant of Venice Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A. by Charles John Kean

But Rose shopped and gormandized and enjoyed her healthy animal life.

From The Lost Lady of Lone by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

The first day among the hills was spent like the first one on shore—without food, although they had so gormandized themselves on the preceding evening that they were able to stand this privation much better.

From Adrift in the Wilds or, The Adventures of Two Shipwrecked Boys by Edward Sylvester Ellis

They jess sot thar, an' gormandized on waffles an' batter-cakes, an' didn't call no names.

From Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches by Joel Chandler Harris

Squirrels sat upon the logs near by and gormandized and chattered.

From On Canada's Frontier Sketches of History, Sport, and Adventure and of the Indians, Missionaries, Fur-traders, and Newer Settlers of Western Canada by Julian Ralph

In that stronghold of gluttony, he gormandized more than ever, and, being unable to talk it off his stomach, as in other cities, had apoplexy, and died.

From A Simpleton by Charles Reade

The author of this hedonistic, gormandizing prayer is a Christian clergyman of serene faith.

From Time Magazine Archive

This gormandizing Abbé de Voisenon, ever hanging, as it were, between pâtés and his grave, becomes now a rather interesting subject of study.

From The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 by Various

That she should have any affection for the doddering, gormandizing old man--he was nearly fifty--was hardly to be expected.

From Roman Women by Alfred Brittain

He wore away our forks and spoons With hard, incessant gormandizing; The Baker's, and, for some blue moons, The Milkman's bill were quite surprising.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 1, 1892 by Various

Making Forty Mile with a view to dissipating his newly found wealth in a gormandizing “jag,” he sent the settlers in that ramshackle camp into wild excitement by producing nuggets of a size hitherto unmatched.

From Colorado Jim by George Goodchild