Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the festivals celebrated in honor of Saturn.
  • Of the character of the Saturnalia of ancient Rome; hence, characterized by unrestrained license and reveling; licentious; loose; dissolute.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the Saturnalia.
  • adjective Of unrestrained and intemperate jollity; riotously merry; dissolute.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Her latest collection of short stories offers not only the poetry of Roberts's exquisite sensibilities but a saturnalian experience: the theatre of action is the dirt under our feet and fingernails, the unmediated matter of life and death.

    Mud: Stories of Sex and Love by Michèle Roberts Stevie Davies 2010

  • I wish I had the time to recount my saturnalian season of excess over the last two weeks, but ye see that gorgeous bloody cover down below?

    Happy New Year Hal Duncan 2006

  • I wish I had the time to recount my saturnalian season of excess over the last two weeks, but ye see that gorgeous bloody cover down below?

    Archive 2006-01-01 Hal Duncan 2006

  • Don't worry, we'll return to the good old blue-and-orange as soon as Baby Jesus is finished celebrating the twelve days of saturnalian debauchery with Tiny Tim up at the Burlington Mall.

    Philocrites: 'Tis the season to be syncretists. 2006

  • All midwinter nights and saturnalian chaos, a schizoid descent into dreams and delusions.

    Archive 2004-09-01 Hal Duncan 2004

  • All midwinter nights and saturnalian chaos, a schizoid descent into dreams and delusions.

    "Just When I Thought I Was Out..." Hal Duncan 2004

  • Don't worry, we'll return to the good old blue-and-orange as soon as Baby Jesus is finished celebrating the twelve days of saturnalian debauchery with Tiny Tim up at the Burlington Mall.

    Philocrites: December 2006 Archives 2006

  • Of course, there were plenty who weren't remotely coy about it: either hoping to try their hand in the saturnalian lucky dip, or already engaged in a mutually knowing conspiracy of flirting, footsie and ward-round eye contact since mid-November.

    Boiling a Frog Brookmyre, Christopher, 1968- 2000

  • Of course, there were plenty who weren't remotely coy about it: either hoping to try their hand in the saturnalian lucky dip, or already engaged in a mutually knowing conspiracy of flirting, footsie and ward-round eye contact since mid-November.

    Boiling a frog Brookmyre, Christopher, 1968- 2000

  • A note from the other world will strike upon the chord of my being, and the spirit which has been dozing within me awakens and fiercely beats at its bars, demanding some nobler thought, some higher aspiration, some wider action, a more saturnalian pleasure, something more than the peasant life can ever yield.

    My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin 1916

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