luxuriate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to enjoy oneself without stint; revel.
to luxuriate in newly acquired wealth.
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to grow fully or abundantly; thrive.
The plants luxuriated in the new soil.
verb
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(foll by in) to take voluptuous pleasure; revel
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to flourish extensively or profusely
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to live in a sumptuous way
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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luxuriatesimple
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luxuriatessimple
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have luxuriatedperfect
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has luxuriatedperfect
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am luxuriatingprogressive
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are luxuriatingprogressive
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is luxuriatingprogressive
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have been luxuriatingperfect progressive
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has been luxuriatingperfect progressive
Past
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luxuriatedsimple
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had luxuriatedperfect
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was luxuriatingprogressive
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were luxuriatingprogressive
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had been luxuriatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of luxuriate
1615–25; < Latin luxuriātus, past participle of luxuriāre. See luxuriant, -ate 1
Explanation
To luxuriate is to enjoy yourself extravagantly or to an extreme degree. Luxuriate can also mean to thrive, like a plant that grows wildly. A luxury is something expensive and unnecessary, like eating at a fancy restaurant. To luxuriate is to enjoy yourself in a similar way, not necessarily by spending a lot, but by enjoying something to the fullest. Lying in the sun for hours is luxuriating. Reading in the bookstore for hours is luxuriating. Also, luxuriating is a type of prosperous growth. A banana tree that yields a lot of bananas is luxuriating: it's thriving and growing.
Vocabulary lists containing luxuriate
The Diary of Anne Frank
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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.
See Examples For:
There’s no evidence that this generation intends to make pining their only romantic activity; it’s more that they are very content, at the moment, to luxuriate in the many conduits for yearning available to them.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2026
Yet Mike and Claire embrace the cheese, luxuriate in it, like toddlers spinning around deliriously in their first snowfall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
It’s about creating spaces where LGBTQ+ people can be visible but also feel safe to be in community, a moment to live without fear and luxuriate in collective joy.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2025
I’ll also make some hot chocolate and then I’ll put on “The Great British Bake Off” show while I’m cooking, so I can really luxuriate in the Sunday chill vibes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
They stay with me for minutes after I wake up and I luxuriate in them, but I forget them soon.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Before Kercher’s murder corkscrews their story, “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” luxuriates in the postcard-perfect view from the apartment Amanda shared with Meredith and two Italian women.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2025
His own intentions remain unclear in a story that luxuriates in a physical and metaphorical haze, and that prefers to hint at mysteries rather than solve them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
There are still some perplexing balance choices — a muddled opening of the Seventh, and a Fifth that luxuriates too much in its drama.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022
Main character though Meilin may be, Oh frequently luxuriates in the spotlight with a performance that will alarm anyone who’s ever wanted to vanish while watching their parents cause a scene in public.
From The Verge ● Mar. 7, 2022
Being sheltered from the north, and with a rich soil, every cottage garden luxuriates in great hedges of mesembryanthemum; and, as we find further west, the fuchsias grow like trees.
From The Cornwall Coast by Salmon, Arthur L. (Arthur Leslie)
He said she was an "emotional parasite" who fed off the couple's despair and "luxuriated" in offering them false hope.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
Every summer in the mid to early aughts, instead of getting a job or hanging out with my friends, I luxuriated in months of unfettered internet access on the computer already in my bedroom.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2025
Gustavo Dudamel luxuriated in his own warmly sympathetic recording of it with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2014.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
Another politician would have crowed a little, or luxuriated in the moment.
From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2017
The spoken language luxuriated in rolled r’s and Z’s.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
The couple will still be on a high after all the festivities and luxuriating in the afterglow of the love — and cash — bestowed upon them.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026
Far from luxuriating in a serene and pristine writing environment, Ms. Lewin reveals, Woolf worked amid “old nibs, bits of string, used matches, rusty paper-clips, crumpled envelopes, broken cigarette-holders, etc.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Like everyone else at Crooked Con, Piker is luxuriating in what he thinks is a vibe shift.
From Slate ● Nov. 19, 2025
It begins innocently enough: the two sit down to steaks at Paddy’s, luxuriating in the rare act of sharing a proper meal.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2025
He was bathing in it, wallowing in it, positively luxuriating in it, his flickering tail hanging over the side of the bowl, flinging sugar across the table.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
