Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Dazzlingly beautiful or magnificent.
  • adjective Characterized by magnificence or virtuosic brilliance.
  • adjective Informal Wonderful; delightful.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sumptuously adorned; superbly showy; resplendent; magnificent.
  • Inclined to splendor; given to gorgeousness.
  • Synonyms Superb, brilliant, dazzling; rich, costly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a person or place very beautiful.
  • adjective Very enjoyable, pleasant, tasty etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective dazzlingly beautiful

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gorgeouse, probably from Old French gorgias, jewelry-loving, elegant, from gorge, throat; see gorge.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Early Modern English gorgious, gorgeouse, from Middle French gorgias ("elegant, fashionable"), from Old French gourgias, gorgias ("gorgeous, gaudy, flaunting, gallant, fine"), of uncertain formation, but apparently connected with Old French gorgias ("a gorget, ruffle for the neck"), from Old French gorge ("bosom, throat"); see gorge. Sense evolution was probably that of "swelling of the throat or bosom due to pride, bridling up" to "assume an air of importance, flaunting".

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Examples

  • Among the photo optimizations, the software giant has increased the display size of the thumbnails, made it possible for users to order photo prints from the service, offered people tags and what it referred to as a gorgeous online slide show.

    Softpedia News - Global 2008

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    Indridason et al.: books for September in the UK Maxine 2009

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    June 2009 Maxine 2009

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    PETRONA Maxine 2009

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    Books Maxine 2009

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    Indridason et al.: books for September in the UK Maxine 2009

  • Quercus has several titles due out: If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, a new Bernie Gunther novel (£17.99), Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass (£12.99), and a reissue of David Pearce's 1974 and 1977 (£12.99 each), in "gorgeous" hardback editions.

    Publishing Maxine 2009

  • Especially since I keep being lucky enough to see him in gorgeous worn old 19th century music halls with even more gorgeous acoustics.

    January 31st, 2009 matociquala 2009

  • For almost 20 years, I was fortunate enough to correspond via snail mail with a terrifically gifted artist friend who liberally illustrated his letters (written in gorgeous cursive, too) with wonderful sketches of whatever he was writing about -- needless to say, I treasure them (alas, we mostly talk on the phone now).

    The Van Gogh Letter Sketches 2009

  • For almost 20 years, I was fortunate enough to correspond via snail mail with a terrifically gifted artist friend who liberally illustrated his letters (written in gorgeous cursive, too) with wonderful sketches of whatever he was writing about -- needless to say, I treasure them (alas, we mostly talk on the phone now).

    The Van Gogh Letter Sketches » E-Mail 2009

Comments

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  • I find it funny that a word meaning "surpassingly beautiful" has gorge as its root, given that the only time anyone uses the word gorge in that sense today is talking about vomiting.

    December 11, 2006

  • actually the root gorge= also means the mountainous region.. but the true story of the word 'gorgeous' comes to us from the word GURJI (Persians and later Turks call Gurji -Georgian people.. who were considered the most beautiful people.. and every beautiful women were called a 'gurji' from here - gorgeous.

    Also i as a Georgian:-) should mention here another well known and widely term - the "Caucasian" - the race classification of white European people were called after Georgian people..by the founder of Anthropology –Blumenbach ‘after deciding that a skull of a Georgian woman was the most beautiful he had ever seen’.

    April 2, 2007

  • When I was growing up, it was a mantra in our family that "you should never say gorgeous, if referring to food". Has anyone else ever heard this?

    July 22, 2009

  • Not I.

    July 22, 2009

  • LOVE the pronunciation... hilarious!!!!

    April 1, 2010