Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To take great pleasure or delight.
  • intransitive verb To engage in uproarious festivities; make merry.
  • noun A boisterous festivity or celebration; merrymaking.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To draw back or away; remove.
  • To hold or take part in revels; join in merrymaking; indulge in boisterous festivities; carouse.
  • To dance; move with a light and dancing step; frolic.
  • To act lawlessly; wanton; indulge one's inclination or caprice.
  • To take great pleasure; feel an ardent and keen enjoyment; delight.
  • To spend in revelry.
  • noun A merrymaking; a feast or festivity characterized by boisterous jollity; a carouse; hence, mirth-making in general; revelry.
  • noun Specifically— A kind of dance or choric performance often given in connection with masques or pageants; a dancing procession or entertainment: generally used in the plural.
  • noun An anniversary festival to commemorate the dedication of a church: a wake.
  • noun Synonyms Debauch, Spree, etc. See carousal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.), rare See reveal.
  • noun A feast with loose and noisy jollity; riotous festivity or merrymaking; a carousal.
  • noun Same as Lord of misrule, under Lord.
  • transitive verb obsolete To draw back; to retract.
  • intransitive verb To feast in a riotous manner; to carouse; to act the bacchanalian; to make merry.
  • intransitive verb To move playfully; to indulge without restraint.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An instance of merrymaking; a celebration.
  • verb To make merry; to have a gay, lively time.
  • verb obsolete To draw back; to retract.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take delight in
  • noun unrestrained merrymaking
  • verb celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English revelen, to carouse, from Old French reveler, to rebel, carouse, from Latin rebellāre, to rebel; see rebel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English revelen, from Old French revel, from reveler ("to be disorderly, to make merry"), from Latin rebello ("to rebel")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin revellere; re- + vellere ("to pluck, pull").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Precise meaning is

    "to dance, drink, sing etc at a party or in public, especially in a noisy way"

    February 20, 2009