lavish

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English

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WOTD – 14 February 2007

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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lavish (comparative lavisher or more lavish, superlative lavishest or most lavish)

  1. 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:
      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.
  2. 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, [Act II, scene ii]:
      Let her haue needfull, but not lauish meanes
    • 1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 81:
      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.
  3. (obsolete) Unrestrained, impetuous.
  4. (chiefly dialectal) Rank or lush with vegetation.

Synonyms

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Translations

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Verb

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lavish (third-person singular simple present lavishes, present participle lavishing, simple past and past participle lavished)

  1. (transitive) To give out extremely generously; to squander.
    They lavished money on the dinner.
  2. (transitive) To give out to (somebody) extremely generously.
    They lavished him with praise.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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lavish (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Excessive abundance or expenditure, profusion, prodigality.

Anagrams

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