v. [f. L. luxuriāt-, ppl. stem of luxuriāre: see LUXURIANT.]
1. intr. Of a plant: To grow rank. Now rare. Also fig. † Of a writer: To write at exuberant length; to exceed one’s limits. Obs.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr. 10. I could haue more willingly luxuriated, and better satisfied my selfe and others. Ibid., III. ii. II. i. 545. The mind is apt to lust, and hote or cold, As corne luxuriates in a better molde.
1658. J. Robinson, Eudoxa, IX. 48. Scorbutical Plants … luxuriate, where the Scurvie is predominant.
1731. In Bailey, vol. II.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 269. The vineyards hereabout are partly lopped, partly left to luxuriate.
1868. Lightfoot, Comm. Philipp. (1873), 259. Syria was a soil where such a plant would thrive and luxuriate.
† b. fig. To grow or develop exuberantly into (error, folly, etc.). Obs.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xvii. (1739), 90. The Clergy … suffered the minds of young Scholars to luxuriate into Errours of Divinity.
1757. Johnson, Rambler, No. 172, ¶ 1. The powers of the mind … more frequently luxuriate into follies, than blossom into goodness.
1808. Eleanor Sleath, Bristol Heiress, V. 121. The seeds of faults … wanted but the soil in which … to luxuriate into vices.
2. To indulge in luxury; to feast, revel, enjoy oneself. Now only with const. in, on.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr. 56. Let them tyrannize, Epicurize, oppresse, luxuriate, and consume themselues.
1648. Jos. Beaumont, Psyche, XIX. xliv. ’Tis Worth enough, if a young Gallant can Look big, Luxuriate, and Write Gentleman.
1832. Mrs. F. Trollope, Dom. Manners Amer., i. (1839), 2. A huge crocodile luxuriating in the slime.
1841. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 71. I had a long letter from Morton the other day—he is still luxuriating at Venice.
1866. Mrs. Stowe, Lit. Foxes, 25. The Christmas-dinner, that solid feast of fat things on which we also luxuriated.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 278. The troops … must have luxuriated in the easeful quarters which Hannibal’s sword had opened for them.
b. In immaterial sense: To take great delight, revel in (something).
c. 1650. trans. Hales’ Dissert. de Pace, in Phenix (1708), II. 357. Do they not luxuriate in this Wish?
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. 550. They also did luxuriate in their other Many Creature-gods.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 71. The mind … luxuriates in its newly found powers.
1880. N. Smyth, Old Faiths in New Light, iv. (1882), 124. The Oriental mind … luxuriates in dreams.
Hence Luxuriation, the action or process of luxuriating; exuberant efflorescence.
1839. De Quincey, Recoll. Lakes, Wks. 1862, II. 207. This book never could be very popular, from the … luxuriation of its descriptions. Ibid. (1854), Autobiog. Sk., Wks. II. 60. The same genial climate there was, the same luxuriation of nature in her early prime.
