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.

---

noun

1. gourmandise.

gormandize British  

verb

1. to eat (food) greedily and voraciously

---

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

On examination, he found that he had spent enough for provisions on which to gormandize to have lasted eight months, and yet he had been on the route but two and a half months.

From Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent by Joel Tyler Headley

Others acknowledged their mortality and so they told themselves they would gormandize while the feast was on the table.

From Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America by Steven (Steven David Justin) Sills

Because he paid his half dollar for meals at the taverns on the way, Tilghman seemed to feel himself licensed to gormandize at a beastly rate.

From Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. XLII., May 1851 by Various

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

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

Even a very rich and hearty luncheon, which her maid had provided, was gormandized rather than enjoyed, so tempting did her couch look to the worn-out damsel.

From Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch

The signoras and signorinas fell upon them and gormandized; but the signors eyed them with reasonable suspicion.

From The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade

At that time he preferred serving food to being a viand for those who gormandized oddities.

From An Apostate: Nawin of Thais by Steven (Steven David Justin) Sills

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

Angela succeeds in getting the keys of the convent from Gil-Perez, the porter, who had also left his post, seduced by his love of gormandizing and had come to pay court to Claudia.

From The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Charles Annesley

The Ool, or Oily sandwich:—rare gormandizing then; for oily it was called, because of fat old joints, and hams, and rounds, and barons of sea-beeves and walrusses, which then crowned the stratum-board.

From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville

Clumsy, gormandizing clowns, fond of practical jokes, especially such as stealing eatables and drinkables.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

The uncouth way in which they were gormandizing was terrible to witness.

From Missing Friends Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880) by Thorvald Weitemeyer

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---