lavish
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlævɪʃ/
rhymes: -ævɪʃ
Forms: form: lavisher
form: more lavish
form: lavishest
form: most lavish
form: lavis
form: laves
form: lavas
Etymology: From Middle English laves, lavas, lavage (“extravagant, wasteful, prodigal”), from lavas (“excessive abundance”), from Old French lavasse, lavache (“torrent of rain”); possibly later conflated in some senses by Middle English laven (“to pour out”), equivalent to lave + -ish. Compare Scots lawage, lavisch, lavish (“unrestrained, excessively prodigal, extravagant”). Compare also English lavy (“lavish, liberal”), Dutch lafenis (“lavishness”).
Senses: examples: text: lavish of money; lavish of praise
text: The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.
ref: 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
synonyms: word: profuse
word: wasteful
word: extravagant
word: exuberant
word: immoderate
word: opulent
word: extravagant
word: improvident
word: imprudent
word: lavish
word: prodigal
word: profligate
word: reckless
word: spendthrift
word: squandering
word: uneconomical
word: unthrifty
word: wasteful
glosses: Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.
examples: text: lavish spirits
text: lavish meal
text: Let her haue needfull, but not lauish meanes
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: The accommodation for passengers was designed on a rather lavish scale, as it was expected that extensive housing development would take place in the vicinity. These hopes were not realised, however, and, apart from the school buildings, the surroundings of the station have never lost their rusticity.
ref: 1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 81:
text: Max Chafkin, Thiel's biographer, describes Vance as his "extension", while Cadwalladr describes Vance, somewhat impolitely, as "Thiel's creature… a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers".
ref: 2024 August 14, Bryn Haworth, “Artificial Ignorance: broligarchs and their brains should read Gulliver”, in Al Majalla, archived from the original on 11 Sep 2024:
synonyms: word: immoderate
word: unrestrained
word: excessive
word: extravagant
word: unmeasured
word: unreasonable
word: extreme
word: immoderate
word: intemperate
word: lavish
word: nimious
word: obscene
word: overmuch
word: overweening
word: over the top
word: prodigal
word: undue
word: unrestrained
word: wanton
glosses: Superabundant; excessive.
examples: text: Thou wilt repent theſe lauiſh words of thine
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
synonyms: hasty
impulsive
rash
spontaneous
glosses: Unrestrained, impetuous.
examples: text: […] Thro’ lands where not a leaf was dumb;
⁠But all the lavish hills would hum
The murmur of a happy Pan: […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 39:
synonyms: word: bosky
word: verdant
word: bosky
word: greenly
word: lavish
word: lush
word: verdant
word: verdured
word: verdurous
word: virid
word: viridescent
glosses: Rank or lush with vegetation.
Related terms: lavy