/ɡɔːdʒ/, /ɡɔɹd͡ʒ/
OriginFrom 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.
- archaicThe front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
“His gall did grate for griefe and high diſdaine,
And knitting all his force got one hand free,
Wherewith he grypt her gorge with ſo great paine,
That ſoone to looſe her wicked bands did her co[n]ſt”
- archaic, literaryThe inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
“I wil tel you, Scholer, that unleſs the hook be faſt in his [the trout's] very Gorge, he wil live, and a little time with the help of the water, wil ruſt the hook, & it wil in time wear away as the gr”
“Gleam, a term uſed after a hawk hath caſt and gleameth, or throweth up filth from her gorge.”
“Then as it [a giant serpent] opened its gorge with a gasp,
Darra his son made a running bound,
And keeping his sharp skian firm in his grasp,
Dived headlong into its throat profound.”
- The throat of a flower.
- Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out.
“My gorge rises at the sight of it.”
“And like a Crane his [Gluttony's] necke was long and fyne,
With which he ſwallow'd vp exceſſive feaſt,
For want whereof poore people oft did pyne,
And all the way, moſt like a brutiſh beaſt,
He ſp”
“Alas poore Yoricke, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite ieſt, of moſt excellent fancie, hee hath bore me on his backe a thouſand times, and now how how abhorred in my imagination it is: my gorge ”
- USA choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.
“an ice gorge in a river”
“An ice gorge had formed in the bed of the river at the head of the island and from bank to bank logs, driftwood, broken ice and giant floes were packed and jammed so tightly as to resist the action of”
- A concave moulding; a cavetto.
“GORGE, Gula, in architecture, the narroweſt part of Tuſcan and Doric capitals, lying between the aſtragal, above the ſhaft of the pillar and the annulets. […] It is alſo uſed for a concave moulding, l”
- 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.
“Half Moon. An Outwork conſiſting of two Faces, which makes an Angle Salient, the Gorge whereof bends in like a Bow, or Creſcent, and were formerly us'd to cover the Point of a Baſtion, which diſtingui”
“Ramps lead from the gorges of the bastions down to these outlets into the main ditch. […] To keep open the communication between the bastions, a gallery between their gorges is made along the curtain ”
“Construction on this massive fort was never completed. […] Only the foundations and a few tiers of stone were completed on the two gorge walls and the gorge bastion. At this point, a significant modif”
- 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.
“Hooks of willow wood or bone (often from wishbone) and copper gorges (thin bipointed rods with a fishline attachment in the middle) could be baited with fish scrap or meat.”
“Examining this piece of worked stone, which once belonged to a prehistoric man living in that valley, we find it fairly well polished, though the action of countless years has slightly "weathered" or ”
- A deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides, particularly one with a stream running through it; a ravine.
“It is moreover certain that for eight or nine months of the year, the great rivers rush from their gorges into the mountains as torrents of clear water, or only, in the hot months, discoloured by fine”
“As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forest”
“Our part of the veranda did not hang over the gorge, but edged the meadow where half a dozen large and sleek horses had stopped grazing to join us.”
- The groove of a pulley.
“But as the rope muſt lead the pulley, or the pulley the rope, when there is room to apprehend that the rope may not ſlide upon the pulley, the gorge is hollowed in the form of an angle, or ſtuck with ”
“A cord, in passing round a pulley, lies in a groove, sometimes called the gorge of the pulley; if the object of the pulley is merely to support, guide, or strain the cord, the gorge may be considerabl”
- plural-normallyA whirlpool used as a heraldic charge.
“The heraldic name for whirlpools is gorges, and a mediaeval family called Gorges bore a whirlpool as its arms.”
- An act of gorging.
“To condition a hawk, feed it once in three days with as much meat as it can possibly stow away—which you will find a vast quantity, and more than necessary for a meal. This feast is known technically ”
“He would arm his mind with laughter, laughter is not quite the word but it will have to serve, at every point, then he would admit the idea and blow it to pieces. Smears, as after a gorge of blackberr”
- intransitive, reflexiveTo stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat greedily and in large quantities.
“They gorged themselves on chocolate and cake.”
“[I]f the preceding night prove dark and cloudy, the ſucceeding day, will be no good day to angle in, unleſs it be for ſmall fiſh; for at ſuch time the larger prey abroad for the leſſer; who by inſtinc”
“"Friend," he said, after watching him for some minutes, "if thou gorgest thyself in this fashion, thou wilt assuredly choak. Wilt thou not take a draught out of my cup to help down all that dry meat?"”
- transitiveTo swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
“Seiz'd by his [a lion's] stalwart teeth, at once | his victim's [a cow's] neck is broken:
Thereafter, swilleth he the blood, | and all her entrails gorgeth.”
“If you use live bait, be exceedingly careful in determining when the fish has gorged it. You should give him several minutes after he has seized it, for this purpose. On seeing the bait, a pickerel wi”
- transitiveTo fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.
“If in thy doting and decrepit age,
Thy ſoul, a ſtranger in thy youth to rage,
Begins in cruel deeds to take delight,
Gorge with my blood thy barb'rous appetite; […]”
“The giant, gorg'd with flesh, and wine, and blood,
Lay stretch'd at length and snoring in his den,
Belching raw gobbets from his maw, o'ercharged
With purple wine and curdled gore confus'd.”
- transitiveTo 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.
“At the mouth of the river there is shoal water, in which the ice grounds, and in severe weather, it forms a point of support for successive floating masses, until it sometimes gorges up for many miles”
“The morbid appearances left in the body after poisoning with carbonic acid gas have been chiefly observed in persons killed by charcoal vapour. […] the heart and great veins are gorged with black flui”
“He'd meant to only kiss her, to play a bit with her mouth, to place small kisses on the fragile bones of her cheeks, but when their tongues met, the gentleness flamed to full-fledged wanting. His cock”
- slangGorgeous.
“Oh, look at him: isn’t he gorge?”
“"Um, Hadley? Don't tell me that's another new outfit. It's totally gorge!” Sofia stopped me in the middle of the hallway to admire the clothes I'd meticulously picked out that morning.”
“While she's [Katy Perry's] been hard at work on her singing and choreography, designers have been hard at work coming up with the most gorge, glam, and fabulous costumes for her to wear on stage.”
Formsgorges(plural) · gorges(present, singular, third-person) · gorging(participle, present) · gorged(participle, past) · gorged(past) · more gorge(comparative) · most gorge(superlative) · gorg(alternative)