Dictionary

bacchanalize en · VERB

Etymology

From bacchanal + -ize.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To behave as if at a bacchanal; to revel riotously.
   • Then we begin our free and easy party. Let us bacchanalize to the limit. 1927, The Death of Ii Tairo, page 193:
   • I know that a certain man [St. Ambrose of Milan] has narrated the history of the Goths, who have been recently bacchanalizing in our lands, as of Gog and Magog, thus characterizing them by their present activities, and as they are referred to in Ezechiel. 1952, Francis Xavier Murphy, A Monument to Saint Jerome:
   • We three could bacchanalize a little. But Jennifer mustn't know about it. 2003, Alexander Akishin, In the Valley of Armageddon:
2. (transitive) To make riotous and wild.
   • To love life and to bacchanalize living are two separate instincts. 1923, Walter Sydney Sichel, The sands of time: recollections and reflections, page 239:
   • Imagine if you can the “ battle ” of Salvator Rosa bacchanalized. 1888, Victor Hugo, Romances - Volume 4, page 64:
   • Yet Stowe so luxuriates in the swamp's productivity that it is impossible to believe she feels conflicted about nature bacchanalized. 2017, Michele Currie Navakas, Liquid Landscape:

Forms