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binge

UK/bɪnd͡ʒ/ US/ˈbɪndʒ/ uncommon
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

any act of immoderate indulgence

  • “an orgy of shopping”
  • “an emotional binge”
  • “a splurge of spending”
Synonyms
2.

an occasion for excessive eating or drinking

  • “they went on a bust that lasted three days”
Synonyms

verb

1.

overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself

  • “She stuffed herself at the dinner”
  • “The kids binged on icecream”
Synonyms

Origin

From Leicestershire and Northamptonshire dialect, binge (“to drink deeply", also "to soak, steep, drench", specifically "to swell a leaky wooden vessel by filling it with or plunging it into water”), of unknown origin. Possibly inherited from Middle English *bengen, from Old English *benġan, from Proto-West Germanic *bangijan (“to press”), possibly related to *bangōn (“to bang”) and thus potentially cognate with Bavarian aufbenga (“to raise for processing”), Middle Low German bengen (“to evacuate, to force birth”, German Low German bängen, bengen, bingen), and possibly Middle Scots beynge, bynge (“to cringe”, Scots beenge), though the last could be a blend of bow (“to bow”) + crenge (“to cringe”). However, compare dialectal English beam and Scots beam, beene (“to cure leakage in a tub or barrel by soaking, thereby causing the wood to swell”), though these could be specialised developments of Old English bēam (“wood”), with variants in /n/ being due to influence from this word or assimilation before syncopated forms of the past tense suffix.

Phrases

  • archive binge
  • binge drinker
  • binge drinking
  • binge eat
  • binge eater
  • binge eating
  • binge eating disorder
  • binge flush

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.