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  1. decadent love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Being in a state of decline or decay.
  2. adj. Marked by or providing unrestrained gratification; self-indulgent.
  3. adj. Of or relating to literary Decadence.
  4. n. A person in a condition or process of mental or moral decay.
  5. n. A member of the Decadence movement.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Falling away; decaying; deteriorating.
  2. n. One who or that which exhibits decadence or deterioration; specifically, one whose literary or artistic work is supposed to show the marks of national or general decadence: applied especially to a certain group of French writers and artists.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Characterized by moral or cultural decline.
  2. adj. Luxuriously self-indulgent.
  3. n. A person affected by moral decay.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Decaying; deteriorating.
  2. n. One that is decadent, or deteriorating; esp., one characterized by, or exhibiting, the qualities of those who are degenerating to a lower type; -- specif. applied to a certain school of modern French writers.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay
  2. n. a person who has fallen into a decadent state (morally or artistically)

Etymologies

  1. Back-formation from decadence, from Medieval Latin decadentia, from Late Latin decadens ("decadens"), present participle of Late Latin decado ("sink, fall"). Cognate with French décadent (Wiktionary)
  2. French décadent, back-formation from décadence, decadence; see decadence. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “To his confused mind English literature was a period of degeneracy, one and indissoluble, in which certain famous writers lived, devoting what time they could snatch from the practice of what he called the decadent vices to the worship of the bottle.”

    American Sketches 1908

  • “She offers food, such as what she calls a decadent sweet roll, that's sweetened mostly with agave instead of sugar.”

    Kansas.com Blogs Master Site Feed

  • “On top of that, the Macross can never run out of the abundant food and toys for the 60,000+ people living in decadent luxury in its cargo bay.”

    Archive 2009-06-01

  • “Ignorance may be bliss when in decadent times, but will not give you the tools necessary to thrive when they go bleak.”

    Giorgio Morandi at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

  • “Bath desserts - talk about the ultimate in decadent luxury!”

    Delectable Bath Fizzy Treats

  • “Those sentiments were fully aired during the wide-open era we call the decadent sixties.”

    Seriously Seeking Solutions (Male sexism: cause and cure)

  • “And this was in decadent liberal California (though, admittedly, the most conservative part ...)”

    the nutshell

  • “Wafa used the word decadent to describe the Oriental Harmony Journey, a two-hour, four-handed rubdown offered at the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan.”

    Men.Style.com: Latest Features and Articles

  • “The Akons are more active and mentally healthier than the majority of Arkonides, who are in what you might call a decadent state-and the same is true of their mighty empire.”

    Fictionaut: Good Night, Mrs. Calabash

  • “NAFISI: ... about eating a-- well, any -- like, for example, licking ice cream in public is sort of called decadent or unseemly for a woman.”

    Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. decaying
  1. deteriorating
  1. declining

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘decadent’

  1. indulgent

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. bad person

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. corrupt
  2. degenerate
  3. effete
  4. erotic
  1. effeminate
  2. luxurious
  3. barbaric
  4. deprave
  1. civilize
  2. Byzantine
  3. mediæval
  4. Asiatic
  1. patriarchal
  2. extravagant
  3. Grecian
  4. Gothic
  1. bygone
  2. bourgeois
  3. Victorian
  4. materialistic
  1. degrade

reverse dictionary (8)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. decadent
  1. secentisti
  1. spiroceras
  1. Dowson
  1. decadescent
  1. louche
  1. geratic
  1. yellow

tags (1)

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  1. cvcvcvcc

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  • gulyasrobi Daffynition: Possessing only ten teeth. (deca-dent) Jun 15, 2012

  • bilby "As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: You liberate a city by destroying it. Words are used to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. Finally, words must be so twisted as to justify an empire that has now ceased to exist, much less make sense."
    — Gore Vidal, 'Imperial America', 2004. Feb 17, 2009

  • pterodactyl Boisterous roistering oysters? Sep 20, 2008

  • mollusque With the boisterous oysters? Mar 3, 2008

  • jennarenn I think I may have seen your scallops at a recent holiday bash, drinking it up. Mar 2, 2008

  • cricket Or can they? Maybe the good people at Red Lobster know something you don't know. Mar 2, 2008

  • pomegranate Somebody tell the good people at Red Lobster that shrimp and scallops cannot be decadent! Dec 4, 2007

  • chained_bear Is a dodecadent, then, 12 tridents? Nov 6, 2007

  • sionnach three and a third tridents Nov 6, 2007

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‘decadent’ has been looked up 3837 times, loved by 10 people, added to 71 lists, commented on 9 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.