glutton

comparative more glutton · superlative most glutton

1. Gluttonous; greedy; gormandizing.

   A glutton monastery in former ages makes a hungry ministry in our days.

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

   1 more example

   So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard?

   1597, William Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV i 3

plural gluttons

1. One who eats voraciously, obsessively, or to excess; a gormandizer.

   Such a glutton would eat until his belly hurts.

2. broadlyOne who consumes anything voraciously, obsessively, or to excess.

   "Gluttons in murder, wanton to destroy."

   1705, George Granville, The British Enchanters

   2 more examples

   "A good few indeed, my man," replied the captain. "Yes, you may make away with a deal of money and be neither drunkard nor glutton."

   1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native

   Hope is a subtle glutton; / He feeds upon the fair;

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Hope is a subtle glutton”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd, editors, Poems, Third Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1896, page 15

3. archaicThe wolverine, Gulo gulo.

   [A] civil establishment […] is the animal called a glutton, which falling from a tree (in which it generally conceals itself) upon some noble animal, immediately begins to tear it, and suck its blood […].

   1791, Joseph Priestley, Letters to Burke, section VII

4. colloquialA giant petrel.

present singular third person gluttons · participle present gluttoning · participle past gluttoned · past gluttoned

1. archaicTo glut; to satisfy (especially an appetite) by filling to capacity.

   Glutton'd at last, return at home to pine.

   a. 1657, Richard Lovelace, On Sanazar's Hundred Duckets by hte Clarissimi of Venice

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   In some cities their [local branches] have become gluttoned with success, and in their misguided overzealous ambition they are 'killing the goose that lays the golden egg.'

   1915, Journeyman Barber, Hairdresser, Cosmetologist and Proprietor

2. obsoleteTo glut; to eat voraciously.

   Whereon in Egypt gluttoning they fed.

   1604, Michael Drayton, Moses in a Map of his Miracles

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   Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, / Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

   1598, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 75