orgiastic

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The prim, obliterated, polite surface of life, and the broad, bawdy and orgiastic--or maenadic--foundations, form a spectacle to which no habit reconciles me.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of an orgy.
  2. adjective Arousing or causing unrestrained emotion; frenzied.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Replete with dancers and musicians, massive trays of fruit and meats floating across pools of crystal water in the middle of a room of glamorous and brightly dressed celebrants, it presents a scene of near-orgiastic festivities. —  Pajiba
  • You'll want to do the bump to Holy Fuck's orgiastic, fantastic musical mayhem. —  Westword | Complete Issue
  • Meanwhile, filling up the stage are performances of bravura grotesquerie from Marco Chiappi as the Drum Major, Merfyn Owen as the Captain (looking rather like a Roman soldier from the Asterix comics) and Mitchell Butel as the sadistic and obsessed Doctor, who generate a vision of orgiastic paganism that is like the worst party you've ever attended. —  theatre notes
  • Loud rings the "orgiastic" cry, "Iacchë! —  A Day in Old Athens; a Picture of Athenian Life
  • Moreover, a wine was brewed from these seeds, and this may partly account for the orgiastic nature of the rites of Cybele, which the ancients compared to those of Dionysus. —  The Golden Bough
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Greek orgiastikos, from orgiastēs, celebrant of orgies, from orgiazein, to celebrate orgies, from orgia, orgies; see orgy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Greek ὀργιαστικός, of or pertaining to orgies, from ὄργια, orgies: see orgy.
 

Pronunciations
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/ɔrdʒɪˈæstɪk/
by American Heritage

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