sybaritic

comparative more sybaritic · superlative most sybaritic · alternative Sybaritic

1. Of or having the qualities of a sybarite (“a person devoted to luxury and pleasure”); dedicated to excessive comfort and enjoyment; decadent, hedonistic, self-indulgent.

   [S]he, for whom attendant maidens had smoothed the Sybaritic sheet of finest texture, […]

   1840, F[rederick] M[arryat], “How to Write a Romance”, in Olla Podrida. […], volume III, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 252

   4 more examples

   His belly is a Ceſterne of receit, / A grand Confounder of demulcing Meate. / A Sabariticke Sea, a depthleſſe Gulfe, / A ſenceleſſe Vulture, a corroding VVolfe.

   Henry Hutton (September 1842), Edward F[rancis] Rimbault, editor, Follie’s Anatomie: Or Satyres & Satyricall Epigrams […], London: […] [T. Richards] for the Percy Society, →OCLC, page 22

   Mike took a slow sybaritic sip. "We do use liquor. A few of us—Saul, myself, Sven, some others—like it. I've learned to let it have just a little effect, then hold it, and gain a euphoric growing-closer much like trance without having to withdraw."

   1961, Robert A. Heinlein, chapter XXXVI, in Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 392

   He seeks to work in the arena? […] His is a manly trade; sybaritic Rome, that is becoming effeminate, needs to see muscle at work, recalling more primitive glories.

   1985 September 1, Anthony Burgess, chapter 2, in The Kingdom of the Wicked, London: Allison & Busby, published 2009, →ISBN, page 168

   He [David Hershkovits] loves to sleep late, he loves to entertain, he's an amazing cook. He's such a joyful, celebratory, sybaritic person.

   2017 October 16, Alexandra Schwartz, quoting Jennifer Egan, “Jennifer Egan’s Travels Through Time”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2022

   Synonyms: epicurean, lotus-eating, sybarite, sybaritical, Babylonian, decadent, epicureal, epicurean

comparative more Sybaritic · superlative most Sybaritic

1. Of or relating to Sybaris or its inhabitants.

   This last passage of Jamblichuns, where he intimates that Cyclon's conspiracy came quickly after the Sybaritic war, being not only corrupted in original, but most miserably handled in the Latin translation; […]

   1777, Richard Bentley, Samuel Salter, A Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris: With an Answer to the Objections of the Hon. Charles Boyle, page 49

2. Alternative letter-case form of sybaritic (“of or having the qualities of a sybarite (“a person devoted to luxury and pleasure”); dedicated to excessive comfort and enjoyment; decadent, hedonistic, self-indulgent”).

   But Fate, it appeared, had arranged beforehand to frustrate this Sybaritic dream.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 155

   1 more example

   [S]he, for whom attendant maidens had smoothed the Sybaritic sheet of finest texture, […]

   1840, F[rederick] M[arryat], “How to Write a Romance”, in Olla Podrida. […], volume III, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 252