v. Also 6 ingurge, 6–8 ingorge. [a. F. engorge-r, f. en in + gorge GORGE, throat.]
1. trans. To fill the gorge of; to gorge, feed or fill to excess; chiefly refl. Also (rarely) intr. for refl.
Prob. first used (in Eng.) with ref. to hawks; see GORGE.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, II. (1570), A vj/1. A birde well ingorged kepes well her nest.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. viii. 4. Engorge and pamper vppe themselues with flesh offered to idolles.
1557. North, Diall of Princes, 62 a. To ingurge themselves with wyne.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1213. You sit downe to meat,… but touch not one dish, leaving them afterwards for your servants to engorge themselves therewith and make merry.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 791. Greedily she ingorg’d without restraint.
fig. a. 1559. Dolman, in Mirrour for Magistr. (1568), N 8 b. With pleasures cloyed, engorged with the fyll.
1689. T. Plunket, Char. Gd. Commander, 16. A Cur engorged with asperity.
b. transf. in passive: To be filled to excess, crammed. Chiefly Path. of animal tissues or organs: To be congested with blood.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., i. 6. Virulent letters … ingorged with impudent lies.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 499. The Riuers are ingorged with Salmond.
1834. J. Forbes, Laennec’s Dis. Chest (ed. 4), 213. The surrounding pulmonary substance … was red and engorged.
1869. H. Ussher, in Eng. Mech., 3 Dec., 272/2. These vessels are congested, or engorged with blood.
2. To put (food) into the gorge; to devour greedily. Also transf. and fig. to swallow up (as a vortex).
1541. Elyot, Image Gov. (1556), 72 b. Also ingorgeyng meate upon meate.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIII. vi. 237. Neither doth any man, after he hath once satisfied his hunger, engorge superfluous meats.
1798. Month. Mag., VI. 366. Prepare not to ingorge The eternal pyramids.
1850. Neale, Med. Hymns, 48. Engorg’d in former years, their prey Must Death and Hell restore to-day.
absol. 1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 142. Ingorge once more. Ibid., 179. Largely ingorge, and labour thro’ the Treat.
Hence Engorged ppl. a., Engorger sb., Engorging vbl. sb.
1562. Bulleyn, Def. agst. Sickness, Sicke men, &c. 65 a. This will not helpe to digest your ingorged full stomack.
1598. Florio, Diuoratore, a deuourer, a glutton, an engorger.
1611. Cotgr., Ingorger, A rauener, glutton, gulch, ingorger. Engorgement, a glutting, rauening, deuouring, ingorging.
