gorge

Meaning

Noun

1. (archaic) The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
2. (archaic, literary) The inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
3. The throat of a flower.
4. Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out.
5. (US) A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.
6. A concave moulding; a cavetto.
7. The rearward side of an outwork, a bastion, or a fort, often open, or not protected against artillery; a narrow entry passage into the outwork of an enclosed fortification.
8. A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.
9. A deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides, particularly one with a stream running through it; a ravine.
10. The groove of a pulley.
11. (plural-normally) A whirlpool used as a heraldic charge.

Verb

1. (intransitive, reflexive) To stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat greedily and in large quantities.
2. (transitive) To swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
3. (transitive) To fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.
4. (transitive) To fill up (an organ, a vein, etc.); to block up or obstruct; (US, specifically) of ice: to choke or fill a channel or passage, causing an obstruction.

Adj

Gorgeous.

Synonyms

ravine

canyon

valley

chasm

gully

defile

glut

devour

gobble

gap

engorge

satiate

mountain pass

overindulge

throat

stuff

ingurgitate

overeat

pig out

overgorge

abyss

binge

scarf out

crevice

glen

precipice

consume

eat

🍽️

surfeit

gulch

dingle

crack

gormandise

gourmandize

vale

englut

strait

stodge

swallow

esophagus

bolt

gullet

scoff

oesophagus

gobble up

gormandize

tuck in

cavetto

dale

cuke

Translations

Schlucht

gola

burrone

gorge

garganta

Klamm

garganta

φαράγγι

barranco

ravin

ravine

anfratto

forra

fressen

🍽️

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɡɔːdʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: gorge

Cognate with French: gorge

Cognate with Galician: gorxa

Cognate with Italian: gorga

Cognate with Occitan: gorga

Cognate with Portuguese: gorja

Cognate with Spanish: gorja

Inherited from Middle English: gorgen

Cognate with French: gorger

In summary

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”). Doublet of gour and gurges.