indulged

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of indulge.

   They indulged their guests with a lavish five-course dinner.

   The committee indulged his request for more time without complaint.

   Note

   One spelling does both jobs of the past: they indulged the guests, and the guests were indulged. Only the transitive meanings, satisfying someone's whims or granting a favor, can turn passive. The intransitive meaning, yielding to temptation, stays active. In lending, the verb means granting extra time on a payment. When it describes a pampered person, it has become the adjective for the spoiled.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having been granted every desire, wish, and whim; raised in luxury and never made to do without anything.

   Raised by doting grandparents, the indulged heir had never once been refused anything.

   Critics described the young prince as hopelessly indulged, accustomed to having his every whim met.

   Similarspoiled, pampered, coddled, cosseted

   Oppositedeprived, neglected

   Note

   A participle that has settled into an adjective. It is built on the transitive meaning of the verb form: to satisfy someone's wishes. Because it is gradable, it takes more indulged and most indulged. It usually sits before its noun to describe a person shaped by others' generosity. Jon Byrell's 'indulged son of an obscenely well-off Yorkshire squire' (1996) shows the faintly disapproving company it keeps.

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