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

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Etymology

Origin of gormandize

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

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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

Charley swallows a great gulp of tea in token of submission and so disperses the Druidical ruins that Miss Smallweed charges her not to gormandize, which "in you girls," she observes, is disgusting. 

From Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The dog's stomach is so subject to be deranged that few of these creatures can afford to gormandize; to which failing, however, they are much inclined.

From The Dog by Dinks

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

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 pieces were of a generous size, and after all three had gormandized themselves until, absolutely, they could contain no more, each had some left.

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

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

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

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

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Social glasses of wine are my aversion; public dinners are my abomination; all species of gormandizing my utter scorn and contempt.

From Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made by James Dabney McCabe

Did they think people could not live without gormandizing as they did?

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 by Various

Maybe 264 I’ll shoot a bird to-morrow, and then I’ll have a gormandizing jag.”

From Colorado Jim by George Goodchild

They halted here for two days, the men hunting and gormandizing.

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

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