glutton definition

English

Etymology

Middle English, from Old French gloton, gluton, from Latin gluto, glutonis (“glutton”).

Application of the term to the wolverine was due to the belief that the animal was inordinately voracious, and to the German designation of it as the Vielfraß, which was analyzed as viel (“much”) + fressen (“eat”)^[1] although it actually derives from Old Norse.^[2]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡlʌt(ə)n/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• Hyphenation: glut‧ton
• Rhymes: -ʌtən

Adjective

glutton (comparative more glutton, superlative most glutton)

1. Gluttonous; greedy; gormandizing.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     A glutton monastery in former ages makes a hungry ministry in our days.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1597, William Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV i 3:

     So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
     Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard?

Noun

glutton (plural gluttons)

1. One who eats voraciously, obsessively, or to excess; a gormandizer.

   Such a glutton would eat until his belly hurts.

2. (by extension) One who consumes anything voraciously, obsessively, or to excess.
   • 1705, George Granville, The British Enchanters:

     "Gluttons in murder, wanton to destroy."

   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native:

     "A good few indeed, my man," replied the captain. "Yes, you may make away with a deal of money and be neither drunkard nor glutton."

   • a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Hope is a subtle glutton”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd, editors, Poems, Third Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1896, page 15:

     Hope is a subtle glutton; / He feeds upon the fair;

3. (now rare) The wolverine, Gulo gulo.
   • 1791, Joseph Priestley, Letters to Burke, section VII:

     [A] civil establishment […] is the animal called a glutton, which falling from a tree (in which it generally conceals itself) upon some noble animal, immediately begins to tear it, and suck its blood […] .

Synonyms

• (voracious eater): see Thesaurus:glutton

Translations

See also

• glutton for punishment

Verb

glutton (third-person singular simple present gluttons, present participle gluttoning, simple past and past participle gluttoned)

1. (archaic) To glut; to satisfy (especially an appetite) by filling to capacity.
   • a. 1657, Richard Lovelace, On Sanazar's Hundred Duckets by hte Clarissimi of Venice:

     Glutton'd at last, return at home to pine.

   • 1915, Journeyman Barber, Hairdresser, Cosmetologist and Proprietor:

     In some cities their [local branches] have become gluttoned with success, and in their misguided overzealous ambition they are 'killing the goose that lays the golden egg.'

2. (obsolete) To glut; to eat voraciously.
   • 1604, Michael Drayton, Moses in a Map of his Miracles:

     Whereon in Egypt gluttoning they fed.

   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 75:

     Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, / Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

Related terms

References