DictionaryAI

debauchery

noun
Saydi-BAW-chuh-reeUS/dɪˈbɔ.t͡ʃə.ɹi/UK/dɪˈbɔː.t͡ʃə.ɹi/

Pluraldebaucheries

2 meanings of debauchery

Practice

  1. 1
    wild livingnouncountable or uncountable
    Excessive, uninhibited indulgence in sensual pleasures such as sex, alcohol, or drugs, regarded as scandalous and immoral.

    Tabloids filled their pages with tales of the rock star's debauchery.

    The memoir recounts the debaucheries of his twenties in vivid, regretful detail.

    UsageCommon in a life of debauchery and drunken debauchery; the plural, debaucheries, names separate sprees.

    Similardecadence, dissipation, depravity, excess

    Oppositetemperance, abstinence, restraint

  2. 2
    nounarchaicuncountable
    The act of leading someone astray from their duty.
    Note

    Here the noun keeps debauch in its older sense of luring someone away from what they ought to do, with no drink or sex implied. Outside older writing it is easy to misread, because a modern reader hears indulgence in drink and sex unless the context says otherwise.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • Debauchery has an archaic sense of leading someone away from duty, without necessarily implying alcohol or sex. en.wiktionary.org

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Origin

Formed from debauch + the suffix -ery, first recorded around 1642.

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts