lavish
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”).
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
lavish (comparative lavisher or more lavish, superlative lavishest or most lavish)
- Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.
- lavish of money; lavish of praise
- 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 222716698:
- 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: […] .
- 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
- Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.
- Superabundant; excessive.
- lavish spirits
- lavish meal
- 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 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:
- Let her haue needfull, but not lauish meanes
- (obsolete) Unrestrained, impetuous.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
- Thou wilt repent theſe lauiſh words of thine
SynonymsEdit
- (expending profusely): profuse, prodigal, wasteful, extravagant, exuberant, immoderate, opulent
- See also Thesaurus:prodigal
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
profuse
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excessive
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VerbEdit
lavish (third-person singular simple present lavishes, present participle lavishing, simple past and past participle lavished)
- (transitive) To give out extremely generously; to squander.
- They lavished money on the dinner.
- (transitive) To give out to (somebody) extremely generously.
- They lavished him with praise.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to expend or bestow with profusion; to squander
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to give out to (somebody) extremely generously
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NounEdit
lavish (uncountable)