INDULGE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does indulge mean? 

• INDULGE (verb)
  The verb INDULGE has 4 senses:

1. give free rein to

2. yield (to); give satisfaction to

3. enjoy to excess

4. treat with excessive indulgence

  Familiarity information: INDULGE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INDULGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they indulge    ... he / she / it indulges   
Past simple: indulged   
Past participle: indulged   
-ing form: indulging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give free rein to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

The writer indulged in metaphorical language

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "indulge"):

wallow (devote oneself entirely to something; indulge in to an immoderate degree, usually with pleasure)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

indulgence (the act of indulging or gratifying a desire)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Yield (to); give satisfaction to

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

gratify; indulge; pander

Hypernyms (to "indulge" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "indulge"):

humor; humour (put into a good mood)

spree (engage without restraint in an activity and indulge, as when shopping)

sow one's oats; sow one's wild oats (live promiscuously and self-indulgently)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam cannot indulge Sue

Derivation:

indulgence (a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone)

indulging (the act of indulging or gratifying a desire)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Enjoy to excess

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

indulge; luxuriate

Context example:

She indulges in ice cream

Hypernyms (to "indulge" is one way to...):

consume; deplete; eat; eat up; exhaust; run through; use up; wipe out (use up (resources or materials))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "indulge"):

surfeit (indulge (one's appetite) to satiety)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They indulge themselves

Derivation:

indulgence (an inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Treat with excessive indulgence

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

baby; cocker; coddle; cosset; featherbed; indulge; mollycoddle; pamper; spoil

Context example:

Let's not mollycoddle our students!

Hypernyms (to "indulge" is one way to...):

do by; handle; treat (interact in a certain way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

indulgence; indulging (the act of indulging or gratifying a desire)

 Context examples 

You will observe that I have not yet indulged myself in calling her by that name, even to you.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"I do love you," I said, "more than ever: but I must not show or indulge the feeling: and this is the last time I must express it."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“You anticipate, sir,” said Mr. Chillip, his eyelids getting quite red with the unwonted stimulus in which he was indulging.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Do you think the minds which are suffered, which are indulged in wanderings in a chapel, would be more collected in a closet?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

For Beth, I indulge no hopes except that she may be well.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He had never indulged much hope, he had now none, of ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Unable of course to repress your curiosity in so favourable a moment for indulging it, you will instantly arise, and throwing your dressing-gown around you, proceed to examine this mystery.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He denied himself the enjoyments that most boys indulge in.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She saw that he wanted to engage her on the old subject of his grievances, and she was in no humour to indulge him.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)