gorge
UK /ɡɔːdʒ/ · US /ɡɔɹd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms gorges gorging gorged gorg
- noun (archaic) The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
- noun (archaic, literary) The inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
- noun (botany) The throat of a flower.
- noun Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out. “My gorge rises at the sight of it.”
- noun (US) A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself. “an ice gorge in a river”
- noun (architecture) A concave moulding; a cavetto.
- noun (architecture, military, fortification) The rearward side of an outwork, a bastion, or a fort, often open, or not protected against artillery; a narrow entry passage into the outwork of an enclosed fortification.
- noun (fishing) A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.
- verb (intransitive, reflexive) To stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat greedily and in large quantities. [with on] “They gorged themselves on chocolate and cake.”
- verb (transitive) To swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
- verb (transitive) To fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.
- verb (transitive) To fill up (an organ, a vein, etc.); to block up or obstruct; (US, specifically) of ice: to choke or fill a channel or passage, causing an obstruction.
- noun An act of gorging.
- adjective (slang) Gorgeous. “Oh, look at him: isn’t he gorge?”
- proper noun A male given name.
Synonyms
canyon gurge sate stuff engorge defile esophagus oesophagus gullet ingurgitate overindulge glut englut overgorge overeat gormandize gormandise gourmandize binge pig out satiate scarf out
Etymology
From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”). Doublet of gour and gurges.
The verb is derived from Middle English gorgen (“to eat greedily; to gorge”), a borrowing from Old French gorger, gorgier (modern French gorger (“to eat greedily; to gorge”)), from gorge (“throat”); see further at etymology 1.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Clipping of gorge(ous); originally British slang.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The throat; the gullet; the canal by which food passes to the stomach.
- noun A narrow passage or entrance; as: (a) A defile between mountains.
- verb To swallow; especially, to swallow with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
- verb To glut; to fill up to the throat; to satiate.
Etymology [F. gorge, LL. gorgia, throat, narrow pass, and gorga abyss, whirlpool, prob. fr. L. gurgea whirlpool, gulf, abyss; cf. Skr. gargara whirlpool, gr to devour. Cf. Gorget.]
Etymology [F. gorger. See Gorge, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gorge”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details