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

  • These men, by nature, want recognition and revel is talking about their crimes.

    Think Progress » 1000. 2005

  • Her hair, flying loose in revel or war, is still an angel's hair, and glorious under a halo.

    Smoke and Mirrors: Internalizing the Magic Lantern show in _Vilette_ 2005

  • Weathers channeled a range of soul brethren for what could, at minimum, be called a revel-rousing affair James Brown would've been proud of.

    PegasusNews.com stories Michelle Parsons 2010

  • And we kind of revel in, you know, being miserable.

    Boot Camp Teaches Vets To Work For Themselves 2010

  • [Perhaps "revel" in the wrong word - mostly I just wipe my brow and go, Whew!]

    A sketch a day! frankwu 2008

  • The end-point of a narrative based on a world of baroque, grotesque, (post) Modern, neo-primitivist or modern archaic aesthetics are just as likely to be the "revel" or "conceptual breakthrough" Clute ascribes to Horror and SF.

    Archive 2008-02-01 Hal Duncan 2008

  • The end-point of a narrative based on a world of baroque, grotesque, (post) Modern, neo-primitivist or modern archaic aesthetics are just as likely to be the "revel" or "conceptual breakthrough" Clute ascribes to Horror and SF.

    A Follow Up Hal Duncan 2008

  • Whether or not she's entitled to "revel," this is excessive.

    Hillary's Concession Speech Will Kick Off Battle For Her Supporters 2009

  • | Reply | Permalink tough ... this is "our moment" ... it is the moment for hillary's supporters to "revel" in what she stands for, and if you obama supporters don't like it, then i guess that's just too bad. you never got why 18 million democrats voted for her anyway.

    Hillary's Concession Speech Will Kick Off Battle For Her Supporters 2009

  • Some started to realize that their victories were hollow, while others adapted by learning to "revel" in the hate.

    The Price of Serenity? 2006

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