Word.ws English Dictionary

lavish

/ˈlævɪʃ/

lavish adjective: expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.

Adjective

lavish (comparative lavisher or more lavish, superlative lavishest or most lavish)

  1. Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.
    • lavish of money; lavish of praise
    • The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
  2. Superabundant; excessive.
    • lavish spirits
    • lavish meal
  3. (obsolete) Unrestrained, impetuous.
    • Thou wilt repent theſe lauiſh words of thinec. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  4. (dialectal) Rank or lush with vegetation.
    • […] Thro’ lands where not a leaf was dumb;
      ⁠But all the lavish hills would hum
      The murmur of a happy Pan: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 39

Verb

lavish (third-person singular simple present lavishes, present participle lavishing, simple past and past participle lavished)

  1. (transitive) To give out extremely generously; to squander.
    • They lavished money on the dinner.
  2. (transitive) To give out to (somebody) extremely generously.
    • They lavished him with praise.

Noun

lavish (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Excessive abundance or expenditure, profusion, prodigality.

lavish meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

lavish in Tamil

ஊதாரித் தனமாக, பகட்டான, மிகையான, வரையாது கொடுக்கிற

lavish in Urdu

lavish
اسراف کرنا isrāf karnā

lavish in Bengali

অত্যন্ত ব্যয়বহুল, জাঁকজমকপূর্ণ, অঢেল

lavish in Malayalam

ധാരാളിയായ, ധാരാളിത്തത്തോടെ ചെലവഴിക്കുന്ന, നൽകുന്ന, സമൃദ്ധമായ, അമിതമായ, ധാരാളിത്തത്തോടെ ചെലവഴിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
lavish in Kannada
ಧಾರಾಳವಾಗಿ ಕೊಡುವ, ಕೊಡುಗೈಯ, ಹೇರಳ, ಯಥೇಚ್ಛ
lavish in Sanskrit
पृणक्ति pṛṇakti
lavish in Persian
بریز و بپاش کردن beriz-o-bepâš kardan

Examples of lavish in a sentence

  • There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
  • The accommodation for passengers was designed on a rather lavish scale, as it was expected that extensive housing development would take place in the vicinity.1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 81:

All 40 example sentences with lavish

Synonyms of lavish

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of lavish

Forms of lavish

Adjective
comparativelavisher
comparativemore lavish
superlativelavishest
superlativemost lavish
alternative form (obsolete)lavis
alternative form (obsolete)laves
alternative form (obsolete)lavas
Verb
third-person singular presentlavishes
present participlelavishing
past participlelavished
pastlavished

Past tense of lavish: lavished

Origin of lavish

From Middle English laves, lavas, lavage (“extravagant, wasteful, prodigal”), from lavas (“excessive abundance”), from Old French lavasse, lavache (“torrent of rain”); possibly later conflated in some senses by Middle English laven (“to pour out”), equivalent to lave + -ish. Compare Scots lawage, lavisch, lavish (“unrestrained, excessively prodigal, extravagant”). Compare also English lavy (“lavish, liberal”), Dutch lafenis (“lavishness”).

Words formed from lavish

Words that rhyme with lavish

Questions about lavish

What does lavish mean?
Lavish means expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.
What is lavish in Tamil?
Lavish in Tamil is ஊதாரித் தனமாக, பகட்டான, மிகையான. See Lavish meaning in Tamil.
How do you use lavish in a sentence?
There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.
What part of speech is lavish?
Lavish can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce lavish?
Lavish is pronounced /ˈlævɪʃ/.

Words near lavish in the dictionary

  1. Lavinsky
  2. lavinskyite
  3. Laviolette
  4. Laviolettes
  5. laviscious
  6. lavish
  7. lavished
  8. lavisher
  9. lavishers
  10. lavishes
  11. lavishest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lavish (page history and authors); lavish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اسراف کرنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); Lavish (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lavish (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lavish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “lavish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lavish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.