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debauch - 5 dictionary results

de⋅bauch

  [di-bawch]
Use debauch in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to corrupt by sensuality, intemperance, etc.; seduce.
2. to corrupt or pervert; sully: His honesty was debauched by the prospect of easy money.
3. Archaic. to lead away, as from allegiance or duty.
–verb (used without object)
4. to indulge in debauchery.
–noun
5. a period of wanton or sensual self-indulgence.
6. an uninhibited spree or party; orgy: a wild debauch.
Origin:
1585–95; < F débaucher to entice away from duty, debauch, OF desbauchier to disperse, scatter, equiv. to des- dis- 1 + -bauchier, deriv. of bauc, bauch beam (< Gmc; see balcony, balk; cf. F ébaucher to rough-hew); hence, presumably, to hew (beams) > to split, separate > to separate from work or duty

Related forms:
de⋅bauch⋅er, noun
de⋅bauch⋅ment, noun

Synonyms:
1. See debase.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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de·bauch   (dĭ-bôch')   
v.   de·bauched, de·bauch·ing, de·bauch·es

v.   tr.
    1. To corrupt morally.
    2. To lead away from excellence or virtue.
  2. To reduce the value, quality, or excellence of; debase. See Synonyms at corrupt.
  3. Archaic To cause to forsake allegiance.
v.   intr.
To indulge in dissipation.
n.  
  1. The act or a period of debauchery.
  2. An orgy.

[French débaucher, from Old French desbauchier, to lead astray, roughhew timber : des-, de- + bauch, beam, of Germanic origin.]
de·bauch'ed·ly (-bô'chĭd-lē) adv., de·bauch'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Debauch

De*bauch"\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Debauched; p. pr. & vb. n. Debauching.] [F. d['e]baucher, prob. originally, to entice away from the workshop; pref. d['e]- (L. dis- or de) + OF. bauche, bauge, hut, cf. F. bauge lair of a wild boar; prob. from G. or Icel., cf. Icel. b[=a]lkr. See Balk, n.] To lead away from purity or excellence; to corrupt in character or principles; to mar; to vitiate; to pollute; to seduce; as, to debauch one's self by intemperance; to debauch a woman; to debauch an army.

Learning not debauched by ambition. --Burke.

A man must have got his conscience thoroughly debauched and hardened before he can arrive to the height of sin. --South.

Her pride debauched her judgment and her eyes. --Cowley.

Debauch

De*bauch"\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]bauche.]

1. Excess in eating or drinking; intemperance; drunkenness; lewdness; debauchery.

The first physicians by debauch were made. --Dryden.

2. An act or occasion of debauchery.

Silenus, from his night's debauch, Fatigued and sick. --Cowley.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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debauch 
1595, from M.Fr. debaucher "entice from work or duty," from O.Fr. desbaucher "to lead astray," supposedly lit. "to trim (wood) to make a beam" (from bauch "beam," from Frank. balk; from the same Gmc. source that yielded Eng. balk, q.v.). A sense of "shaving" something away, perhaps, but the root is also said to be a word meaning "workshop," which gets toward the notion of "to lure someone off the job;" either way the sense evolution is unclear.
"Debauchee, n. One who has so earnestly pursued pleasure that he has had the misfortune to overtake it." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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