Definitions

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

  • adjective Sweet and pleasant to taste or smell: synonym: delicious.
  • adjective Richly appealing to the senses or the mind.
  • adjective Having strong sensual or sexual appeal; attractive.
  • adjective Archaic Excessively sweet; cloying.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Very sweet, succulent, or savory; delicious; very pleasant to taste; hence, extremely pleasing to any of the senses or to the mind; enticingly delightful.
  • Sweet or rich so as to cloy or nauseate; sweet to excess; hence, unctuous; fulsome.

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

  • adjective Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich.
  • adjective Cloying; fulsome.
  • adjective rare Gratifying a depraved sense; obscene.

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

  • adjective sweet and pleasant; delicious
  • adjective sexually appealing; seductive
  • adjective obscene

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

  • adjective extremely pleasing to the sense of taste
  • adjective having strong sexual appeal

Etymologies

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

[Middle English lucius, alteration of licious, perhaps short for delicious, delicious; see delicious.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From earlier lushious, lussyouse ("luscious, richly sweet, delicious"), a corruption of *lustious, from lusty (“pleasant, delicious”) +‎ -ous. Shakespeare uses both lush (short for lushious) and lusty in the selfsame sense: 'How lush and lusty the grass looks'. —Temp. ii. I.52. See also lush, lusty.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word luscious.

Examples

  • Splendid materials -- materials that the hand of an artist would make luscious -- egad, sir; _luscious_ -- utterly ruined in the handling.

    Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death T. C. DeLeon

  • When we moved in luscious purple grapes hung from them ... last yr not such luck.

    sarcler - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Out mid-October: a biopic on Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, shot in luscious black and white by renowned photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • I feel a little bit like a commercial using the word luscious, but this cup of custardy tofu, dressed with a thin layer of light soy sauce really was luscious.

    Archive 2007-11-01 tannaz 2007

  • I feel a little bit like a commercial using the word luscious, but this cup of custardy tofu, dressed with a thin layer of light soy sauce really was luscious.

    Izayoi: Come for the Food tannaz 2007

  • Bock beer is of a darker colour than the common lager, and possesses a certain luscious flavour, being spiced with an infusion of coriander or some such aromatic seed.

    Lager Beer in New York 1864

  • My seven-year-old daughter, who'd only consented to make this Swedish journey when told she'd be sleeping in a real farmhouse, pronounced her peanut butter and jelly sandwich "luscious" -- an adjective she usually reserves for things like pink and green breakfast cereals.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • The Sichuan Wonton with Red Oil was once again luscious perfection (the sauce is too good to waste and so I add a few forkfuls of their (somehow) delicately seasoned plain white rice to soak up the sauce when done.

    NJ Dining: Chengdu 1 (UPDATED August 2009) 2009

  • But on his end, the marriage plummets quickly from him preening about landing someone another character calls "luscious" to displays of intense, irrational jealousy.

    News - chicagotribune.com Steve Johnson 2012

  • However pleasant it may be to the palate while we are feeding on it, it is sure to leave a bitter relish behind it; and so far, indeed, it may be called a luscious morsel, that the most greedy appetites are soon glutted, and the most eager longing for it is soon turned into loathing and repentance.

    Amelia — Complete Henry Fielding 1730

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I absolutely despise this word. If there is any word that evokes a response more far (further?) removed from its definition than this word, I have yet to find it!

    September 17, 2009