bacchanal

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This is now covered with encampments in anticipation of to-morrow's festival, and the bacchanal is already in full swing Very few foreigners, they say, have attended this annual feast, which takes place on the first Saturday and Sunday of July, and is worth coming a long way to see.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A participant in the Bacchanalia.
  2. noun The Bacchanalia. Often used in the plural.
  3. noun A drunken or riotous celebration.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • First there was the bacchanal, as I ate the berries by the mouthful, even forgetting to taste their bright tartness. —  Chronogram Articles and Blogs
  • No bacchanal, perhaps, but at least you won't return to school with as many regrettable pictures on Facebook. —  TIME.com: Top Stories
  • Movies from Animal House to Old School have celebrated the rite-of-passage bacchanal, and it seems nobody can get enough of the festivities: even Michael Phelps, the squeaky-clean mama's boy who dreams in red, white and blue, was caught blazing at a University of South Carolina ripper in November (bystander statement of the century: "He was the gold medal winner of bong hits"). —  Stories from The Sun
  • The scene inside the sand fly is no microbial bacchanal: nearly all of the parasites reproduce via cloning instead of sex. —  PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories
  • The story made news because it was really only about bacchanal, like Carnival costumes bought with my taxpayer's dollars. —  TrinidadExpress Today's News
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin Bacchānālia, Bacchanalia; see Bacchanalia.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin bacchanalis, pertaining to Bacchus: see Bacchus.
 

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/ˈbækənəl/
by American Heritage

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