English Reference

Word

binge

US/ˈbɪndʒ/

UK/bˈɪndʒ/

Definitions

01excessive consumption

B2

n. a short period where you eat, drink, or spend much more than usual.

n. a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food, alcohol, or other substances.

“After the long exam week, he went on a shopping binge and bought three new pairs of shoes.”

“The study examined the psychological triggers that lead individuals to engage in a weekend binge of high-calorie foods after a period of strict dieting.”

Informal

02media consumption

B2

n. watching many episodes of a TV show or movies in a very short time.

n. the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television programme or a series of films in rapid succession.

“I finished the entire season in one weekend during a Netflix binge.”

“Streaming platforms have fundamentally altered viewer habits, encouraging the binge as the primary mode of consuming narrative television.”

Informal

Synonyms

03to do something excessively

B2

v. to do something, like eating or watching TV, in an extreme way for a short time.

v. to indulge in an activity to excess; frequently used with the preposition 'on' when specifying the object of consumption.

“It is easy to binge on snacks while you are studying for a test.”

“During the holidays, many people tend to binge on rich desserts and festive drinks before making New Year's resolutions to eat more healthily.”

Informal

Usage

Often used as 'binge on something'.

Synonyms

overindulgesplurge

Antonyms

Real-World Examples

“While young adults ages 18-25 are drinking less than prior generations , a quarter of surveyed full-time college students reported binge drinking in the previous month .”
The Conversation · 3 Sept 2026
“It might be because I binged it, but it felt like the ending was really made up of the season’s last three episodes.”
The Guardian · 10 Aug 2026

Etymology

From Leicestershire and Northamptonshire dialect, binge (“to drink deeply", also "to soak, steep, drench", specifically "to swell a leaky wooden vessel by filling it with or plunging it into water”), of unknown origin. Compare dialectal English beene and beam (“to cure leakage in a tub or barrel by soaking, thereby causing the wood to swell”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry

Level
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Frequent
Updated

Scan code

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English Reference