indulgently
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Explanation
When you do something in an overly generous or permissive way, you do it indulgently. If your grandparents spoil you, they treat you indulgently. You can say you eat indulgently when you dine on luxurious food and take a long time to finish your meal — you're giving yourself permission to feast. Likewise, a babysitter treats a child indulgently when he lets her stay up way past her bedtime. This adverb comes from the noun indulgence. with its variations in meaning: "kindness," "gratification of another's desire," and "yielding to one's own inclinations."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To cook — well, thoughtfully, indulgently — is to assert that pleasure still matters.
From Salon • May 12, 2025
Searcher, upon seeing Ethan lovingly looking at his boyfriend, indulgently declares that he totally understands the discombobulating power of first crushes.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 22, 2022
Alongside three large dogs continually changing their mind about where to nap, the two talked over each other, and indulgently allowed themselves to be interrupted, as they hashed out their maturing relationship.
From New York Times • Aug. 20, 2021
He’s too old, said the 21-year-old University of Southern Alabama journalism student, as his mother, activist Catrena Norris Carter, alternately shook her head and smiled indulgently.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2019
And the woman smiled indulgently and ran a hand through her grey-streaked hair.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
