indulge
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ʌldʒ
Forms: form: indulges
form: indulging
form: indulged
form: indulged
Etymology: From Latin indulgeō (“I indulge”).
Senses: examples: text: He looked at the chocolate but didn't indulge.
text: I indulged in drinking on the weekend.
text: Richardson took over, and Mitchell proceeded to the refreshment room in his turn, but when he came back some ten minutes later, it was evident that he had been indulging in something more potent than coffee, and he was in a very muddled state.
ref: 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53:
text: How can the unions - or more specifically the RMT - possibly think this is a good time to exert a bit of industrial muscle and indulge in strikes both on the national railway and the London Underground?
ref: 2022 January 12, Christian Wolmar, “A new year... but the same old mistakes are being made”, in RAIL, number 948, pages 40–41:
glosses: To yield to a temptation or desire.
raw_tags: followed by "in"
examples: text: Grandma indulges the kids with sweets.
text: I love to indulge myself with beautiful clothes.
text: August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet
Hope in another life implies that we indulge ourselves in the gratifications of this very sparingly.
text: "She constantly faked being sick, and perhaps mistakenly, I indulged her more than I should have, pretending I couldn't tell. But I AM a teacher myself, so it's kind of hard to just let this slide."
ref: 2013, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain, volume 1, →ISBN, page 193:
text: It’s the kind of scenario Peter Sellers might have dreamt up while brushing his teeth, and some of the comic set-pieces – including Nobby’s seduction of a fabulously overweight maid (Gabourey Sidibe) at a luxurious South African hotel – allow Baron Cohen to indulge his Sellersian fantasies to a previously unprecedented degree.
ref: 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):
text: Internet shopping invites you to gaze out upon the entire bazaar all at once and to indulge the merest whim
ref: 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To satisfy the wishes or whims of.
examples: text: to indulge sloth, pride, selfishness, or inclinations
glosses: To give way to (a habit or temptation); to not oppose or restrain.
glosses: To grant an extension to the deadline of a payment.
examples: text: persuading us that something must be indulged to public manners
ref: 1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC:
text: Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light / Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night!
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
glosses: To grant as by favour; to bestow in concession, or in compliance with a wish or request.
Synonyms: sense: to satisfy the wishes of
word: coddle
sense: to satisfy the wishes of
word: cosset
sense: to satisfy the wishes of
word: pamper
sense: to satisfy the wishes of
word: spoil
word: baby
word: cocker
word: featherbed
word: indulge
word: mollycoddle
word: mother
word: namby-pamby
word: nanny
word: posset
Hypernyms: word: overprotect
word: sate
word: satisfy
Derived terms: indulgeable
indulgee
indulgement
indulgingly
overindulge
reindulge
underindulge
Related terms: indulgence
indulgent
indulger