indulge

From the Latin indulgeō (“I indulge”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈdʌldʒ/

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indulge (third-person singular simple present indulges, present participle indulging, simple past and past participle indulged)

1. (intransitive, often followed by "in"): To yield to a temptation or desire.

   He looked at the chocolate but didn't indulge.

   I indulged in drinking on the weekend.

2. (transitive) To satisfy the wishes or whims of.

   Grandma indulges the kids with sweets.

   I love to indulge myself with beautiful clothes.

   • Atterbury

     Hope in another life implies that we indulge ourselves in the gratifications of this very sparingly.

   • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):

     It’s the kind of scenario Peter Sellers might have dreamt up while brushing his teeth, and some of the comic set-pieces – including Nobby’s seduction of a fabulously overweight maid (Gabourey Sidibe) at a luxurious South African hotel – allow Baron Cohen to indulge his Sellersian fantasies to a previously unprecedented degree.

3. To give way to (a habit or temptation); not to oppose or restrain.

   to indulge sloth, pride, selfishness, or inclinations

4. To grant an extension to the deadline of a payment.
5. To grant as by favour; to bestow in concession, or in compliance with a wish or request.
   • Jeremy Taylor

     persuading us that something must be indulged to public manners

   • Alexander Pope

     Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light / Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night!

• (to satisfy the wishes of): coddle, cosset, pamper, spoil
• See also Thesaurus:indulge

• indulgence
• indulgent
• indulger

• Legundi, dueling, eluding

• Rhymes: -uldʒe

indulge

1. third-person singular present indicative of indulgere

indulgē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of indulgeō