Definitions

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

  • noun A person whose life is given over to luxury and sensual pleasures; a sensualist.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining or contributing to luxury and sensual pleasure; promoting sensual indulgence.
  • Given to sensual indulgence; voluptuous: as, voluptuary habits.
  • noun pl. voluptuaries (-riz). A man given up to luxury or the gratification of the appetite and other sensual indulgences; a sensualist.

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

  • noun A voluptuous person; one who makes his physical enjoyment his chief care; one addicted to luxury, and the gratification of sensual appetites.
  • adjective Voluptuous; luxurious.

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

  • noun One whose life is devoted to sensual appetites; a sensualist, a pleasure-seeker.

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

  • adjective displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses
  • noun a person addicted to luxury and pleasures of the senses

Etymologies

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

[French voluptuaire, from Old French, from Late Latin voluptuārius, variant of Latin voluptārius, devoted to pleasure, from voluptās, pleasure; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a Late Latin variant of Latin voluptarius ("devoted to pleasure"), from voluptas ("pleasure").

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Examples

  • I had become what is called a voluptuary; and to be a voluptuary is a physical condition like the condition of a victim of the morphine habit, of a drunkard, and of

    The Kreutzer Sonata 2003

  • I had become what is called a voluptuary; and to be a voluptuary is a physical condition like the condition of a victim of the morphine habit, of a drunkard, and of a smoker.

    The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories [a machine-readable transcription] 1890

  • Philip was a voluptuary, that is, a completely selfish egotist, whose disposition and character resembled the rapier he wore, polished, keen, and brilliant, but inflexible and unpitying.

    My Aunt Margaret's Mirror 2008

  • Philip was a voluptuary, that is, a completely selfish egotist, whose disposition and character resembled the rapier he wore, polished, keen, and brilliant, but inflexible and unpitying.

    My Aunt Margaret's Mirror 2008

  • He himself, who has been described as a voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe labor.

    Famous Affinities of History — Volume 2 Lyndon Orr

  • He himself, who has been described as a voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe labor.

    Famous Affinities of History — Complete Lyndon Orr

  • But he had already realised the tragedy of the voluptuary, which is, after a little time, not that he must go on living, but that he cannot live in two places at once.

    The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1914

  • *The part played in evolution by the voluptuary will be the same as that already played by the glutton.

    The Revolutionist’s Handbook 1903

  • The part played in evolution by the voluptuary will be the same as that already played by the glutton.

    Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • "Ah! The voluptuary, that is why he will not open the door."

    Bohemians of the Latin Quarter Henry Murger 1841

Comments

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  • "Though depicted as a decadent voluptuary, she remained celibate for more than half of her adult life."

    - Michiko Kakutani, 'Cleopatra Behind Her Magic Mirror', New York Times, 5 June 1990.

    September 6, 2009

  • "His countenance bore as little the marks of self-denial, as his habit indicated contempt of worldly splendour. His features might have been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious voluptuary."

    - Description of the Prior of Jorvaulx Abbey in chapter two of 'Ivanhoe' by Sir Walter Scott

    December 23, 2010