debauch
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 1590s, from Middle French desbaucher (“entice from work or duty”), from Old French desbauchier (“to lead astray”), from des- + bauch (“beam”), from Frankish *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, plank”); latter origin of balk.
Evolution of sense unclear; may be literally “to shave/trim wood to make a beam” or may be “to leave/lure someone from a workshop”, Frankish *balkō perhaps also meaning “workshop”.
Possible corruption by way of Anglicised French term bord (“edge, curb”): curb crawling as a synonym for prostitution. Parallels in modern German: Bordsteinschwalbe (“prostitute”, literally “Curb-stone-swallow”). English words bawd, bawdiness may be similarly connected.
Inflected forms:
form: debauches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: debosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: debauches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: debauching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: debauched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: debauched
pos: verb
tags: past
form: debosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: An individual act of debauchery.
pos: noun
examples: [E]v'ry twentieth pace / Conducts the unguarded noſe to ſuch a whiff / Of ſtale debauch forth-iſſuing from the ſtyes / That law has licenſed, as makes temp'rance reel.
I rose by candle-light, and consumed, in the intensest application, the hours which every other individual of our party wasted in enervating slumbers, from the hesternal dissipation or debauch.
As I supported him towards his lodgings I could see that he was not only suffering from the effects of a recent debauch, but that a long course of intemperance had affected his nerves and his brain.
Greene died of a debauch; and Marlowe, the gracer of tragedians, perished in an ignominious brawl.
[T]he room probably was one which he actually used for opium debauches.
gloss: An orgy.
pos: noun
examples: The flowers, oppressive to the eyes, blazed with not a petal stirring, in a debauch of sun.
[T]here were always the gay and silly sensual young girls that Yossarian had found and brought there and those that the sleepy enlisted men returning to Pianosa after their own exhausting seven-day debauch had brought there.
gloss: To morally corrupt (someone); to seduce.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: But the Devil had met with too much Success in his first Attempts, not to go on with his general Resolution of debauching the Minds of Men, and bringing them off from God.
gloss: To debase (something); to lower the value of (something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Those who with nine months toil had spoil’d a Play,
In hopes of Eating at a full Third day,
Justly despairing longer to sustain
A craving Stomach from an empty Brain,
Have left Stage-Practice, chang’d their old Vocations,
Atoning for bad Plays, with worse Translations,
And like old Sternhold with laborious spite,
Burlesque what nobler Muses better write:
Thus while they for their Causes only seem
To change the Channel, they corrupt the Stream.
So breaking Vintners to increase their Wine,
With nauseous Drugs debauch the generous Vine:
So barren Gipsies for recruit are said,
With Strangers Issue to maintain the Trade;
But lest the fair Bantling should be known,
A daubing Walnut makes him all their own.
[S]aving of all kinds is pointless when interest is microscopic and state-sponsored inflation is debauching the currency.
gloss: To indulge in revelry.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
Related words: balk
Derived words: debauchee
debaucher
debauchery
debauchment
debauchness
Translations: