Gorge

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ɡɔːdʒ/

Definitions

1. A deep narrow valley with steep, rocky sides ; to eat large amounts greedily or in a way that fills the stomach excessively
2. A confined landscape feature marked by sheer walls commonly formed by a river cutting through rock ; to consume food rapidly and in excess, often beyond fullness
3. A steep-sided passage or ravine carved by natural forces ; to indulge in eating voraciously until feeling overstuffed

Etymology: The noun "gorge" for a steep-walled ravine is the older sense of a word whose first meaning was the human throat. In Old French "gorge" meant "throat," and it came into English in the Middle Ages as a word for the gullet, and for the crop of a bird, where a hawk stored its food. The landscape sense grew from the image of a narrow, swallowing passage, a throat cut into the earth, and that is the sense most people meet today. The "eat greedily" meaning followed the same anatomical path. Middle English "gorgen" meant to stuff the throat, borrowed from Old French "gorger," and it kept that physical sense of filling the gullet until it was full. The word for the body part and the verb for overeating are therefore the same word, one a noun and one a verb, both descended from the throat. The deeper roots run back to Latin "gurges," meaning whirlpool or eddy, a word that also reached Romance languages as the source of throat words like Spanish "gorja" and Italian "gorga." Its origin is possibly an ancient root meaning to devour or swallow, which links the whirlpool, the throat and the ravine through the same idea of something that takes in.

Synonyms: ravine, canyon, chasm, valley, narrow

Antonyms: plain, flatland, surface, hill, elevation