debauch
pronunciation
How to pronounce debauch in British English:
UK [dɪ'bɔ:tʃ]
How to pronounce debauch in American English:
US [dɪ'bɔtʃ]
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- Noun:
- a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
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- Verb:
- corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
Word Origin
- debauch (v.)
- 1590s, from Middle French débaucher "entice from work or duty," from Old French desbaucher "to lead astray," supposedly literally "to trim (wood) to make a beam" (from bauch "beam," from Frankish balk or some other Germanic source akin to English balk (n.)). 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.
Example
- 1. Printing money would worsen inflation , debauch the currency and bring a balance-of-payments crisis .
- 2. You thought uncle sam was gonna pay for your great debauch forever ?
- 3. It could still succeed : a government in control of a printing press should be able to debauch its own currency without needing outside help .
- 4. Over-fed women and their gluttonous husbands ; a gluttonous debauch ; a gluttonous appetite for food and praise and pleasure .
- 5. Why on earth should we take this market sentiment any more seriously than that which led to the great debauch of 2007 ?