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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lavish.

Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈlævɪʃ/

  1. Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal.

    lavish of money; lavish of praise

  2. Superabundant; excessive.

    lavish spirits
    lavish meal

  3. Unrestrained, impetuous.

    obsolete

  4. Rank or lush with vegetation.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈlævɪʃ/

  1. To give out extremely generously; to squander.

    transitive
    They lavished money on the dinner.

  2. To give out to (somebody) extremely generously.

    transitive
    They lavished him with praise.
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/ˈlævɪʃ/

  1. Excessive abundance or expenditure, profusion, prodigality.

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.