Voluptuous

a. Also 5 voluptuouse, -tuose, Sc. woluptous. [ad. OF. (also mod.F.) voluptueux, -euse (= Sp. and Pg. voluptuoso, It. voluttuoso), or L. voluptuōsus (Pliny, etc.), f. voluptas pleasure, VOLUPTY. Cf. VOLUPTEOUS a.]

  1.  Of or pertaining to, derived from, resting in, characterized by, gratification of the senses, esp. in a refined or luxurious manner; marked by indulgence in sensual pleasures; luxuriously sensuous:

  a.  Of desires or appetites.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 1573. Love ne drof yow nought to don this dede, But lust voluptuous, and cowarde drede.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 4714. To soiourne in the Erbere … Oonly ordeyned for delyte And voluptuouse appetyte.

1491.  Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. i. 5/1. This techith us our sauyour for to kepe us from voluptuous desyres.

1525.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 82 b. Abstynence from the carnall voluptuous appetyte of the flesshe.

c. 1540.  in Prance, Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot (1679), 36. The supporters of our voluptuose and Carnal Appetite.

1697.  South, Serm., I. 32. God … has corrected the Boundlessness of his Voluptuous desires, by stinting his strengths, and contracting his Capacities.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 546. [Dancing girls, who] communicate, by a natural contagion, the most voluptuous desires to the beholders.

  b.  Of pleasure or pleasurable sensations.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 2022. Venus … goddesse is of al plesaunce, Of lust, and fleshly appetyte, And of voluptuous delyte.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 242. Solyman … lay in great securitie,… passing his time in all voluptuous pleasure.

1663.  S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xiv. Because I believe you are desirous to know, how they receive and take in those voluptuous enjoyments.

1756.  Burke, Subl. & B., I. v. That smooth and voluptuous satisfaction which the assured prospect of pleasure bestows.

1820.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 426. If thou might’st dwell among the Gods the while Lapped in voluptuous joy?

1869.  J. Phillips, Vesuv., i. 10. The long voluptuous dream came to a startling end.

1888.  Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., VI. 397/2. Excessive voluptuous sensations may be the result of peripheral or central causes.

  transf.  1614.  Donne, Lett. (1651), 173. Out of a voluptuous loathnesse to let that taste go out of my mouth.

1815.  Shelley, Alastor, 11. Spring’s voluptuous pantings when she breathes Her first sweet kisses, have been dear to me.

  c.  Of modes of life or conduct.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), VI. 79. The luffe of the cuntre and elegancy voluptuous deccyvide his grevous labors.

1553.  Brende, Q. Curtius, x. 209. Hauing in these and suche other like voluptuous vanities consumed a great part of the treasure.

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 82. They subornit him quyitlie to dissobedience,… for by it they thocht they had ane woluptous lyfe.

1582.  Bible (Genev.), 2nd Alph. Direct., Voluptuous liuing, one of the thornes that choke the worde.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXXVI. ii. 925. The very souldiours were let loose and given over to take voluptuous waies.

1634.  W. Tirwhyt, trans. Balzac’s Lett., 211. He as easily surmounteth all his voluptuous irregularities, as he doth his most violent revels.

1685.  Otway, Windsor Castle, 124.

a. 1734.  North, Lives (1826), II. 95. By his voluptuous unthinking course of life he ran in debt.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 75. The gallant warrior starts from soft repose, from golden visions, and voluptuous ease.

1817.  Shelley, Constantia, iv. The breath of summer night, Which … suspends my soul in its voluptuous flight.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, xxxviii. V. 29. A man of voluptuous habits, who desired power as an instrument of sensual indulgence.

  d.  Of fare or feasting.

1544.  Exhort., in Priv. Prayers (1851), 569. Wholesome abstinence … from all delicious living in voluptuous fare.

1585.  Lupton, Thous. Notable Th. (1675), 77. Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt,… did drink one so voluptuous a draught as never any did before.

1638.  Penkethman, Artach., K 3. Excessive consumption and abuse of Wheat and other Victuals in voluptuous Feasts.

1727.  [Dorrington], Philip Quarll (1816), 14. These provisions being somewhat too voluptuous for an hermit.

1759.  B. Martin, Nat. Hist., I. 78. The most voluptuous Part of Cookery.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 589. That dissolving jelly which is so voluptuous a rarity at European tables.

  e.  Of places.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 39. They tell a thousand other Fopperies of this voluptuous Paradise.

1820.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 171. Foodless toads Within voluptuous chambers panting crawled.

1832.  W. Irving, Alhambra, I. 4. A soft southern region, decked out with all the luxuriant charms of voluptuous Italy.

1839.  Thirlwall, Greece, l. VI. 227. The army was permitted to revel for some time in the enjoyments which the most splendid and voluptuous of Eastern cities offered in profusion.

  2.  Addicted to sensual pleasure or the gratification of the senses; inclined to ease and luxury; fond of elegant or sumptuous living.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xviii. 333 (Add. MS.). The voluptuous flessh, that bereth the fire of glotonye and lechery.

1577.  trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 20. Voluptuous and daintie louers of this world … doo without any fruite at al heare Gods worde.

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 121. Our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe, who was neither nice nor voluptuous.

1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 12. The voluptuous person, is a louer of his pleasure more then of God.

1638.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 240. The poore are not so voluptuous: they content themselves with drie ryce, herbs, roots.

1670.  Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 166. The lustful and voluptuous Person, who sacrifices the Strength and Vigour of his Body to the Rage and Temptation of his Blood.

a. 1734.  North, Lives (1826), II. 411. The bey was a merry fellow, and, like other voluptuous Turks, had his buffoons to divert him.

1783.  Johnson, Lett. (1788), II. 298. A friend of mine, who courted a lady of whom he did not know much, was advised to see her eat, and if she was voluptuous at table, to forsake her.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, II. 172. The voluptuous and unwarlike people were protected by impregnable walls.

1848.  Lytton, Harold, I. i. A large building that once had belonged to some voluptuous Roman.

  absol.  a. 1680.  Butler, Characters (1908), 266. The voluptuous is very hard to be pleas’d.

1682.  Burnet, Rights Princes, v. 160. As if it had been the Rich and Voluptuous, and not the Poor and the Hungry.

1762.  Charac., in Ann. Reg., 13. His high relish of social enjoyment soon brought him into request with the voluptuous of all ranks.

1802.  Gentl. Mag., Jan., 3/1. To the … Splenetic—the Voluptuous—the Petulant—and the Proud.

  transf.  a. 1822.  Shelley, Calderon, III. 56. And, voluptuous Vine, O thou Who seekest most when least pursuing.

  3.  Imparting a sense of delicious pleasure; suggestive of sensuous pleasures, esp. of a refined or luxurious kind.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. xxi. And when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again.

1820.  Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 71. The poet succeeds less in the voluptuous and effeminate descriptions.

1844.  Lever, T. Burke, xli. 307. The seigneur … had … mixed in the voluptuous fascinations of the period.

1877.  Dowden, Shaks. Primer, vi. 87. The voluptuous moonlit nights are only like a softer day.

  b.  Suggestive of sensuous pleasure by fulness and beauty of form.

1839.  Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), II. 101. We recognise his spirit in the sylvan shades and voluptuous forms of Albano and Domenichino.

1841.  Macaulay, Ess., Hastings (1851), 649. There appeared the voluptuous charms of her to whom the heir of the throne had in secret plighted his faith.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 144. The voluptuous image of a Corinthian courtezan.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxvi. She was now twenty-six, but had lost none of her voluptuous loveliness.

  transf.  1852.  Tennyson, Ode Wellington, 208. He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting Into glossy purples, which outredden All voluptuous garden-roses.