ENGLISH
REFERENCE

indulgent

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˌɪnˈdəɫdʒənt// UK //ɪndˈʌldʒənt// in·dul·gent

adj. allowing yourself or someone else to have whatever they want, even if it is not healthy or necessary. You use this to describe someone who is very kind or soft in a way that might be too much.

adj. characterised by a tendency to be overly lenient or to yield to desires and whims. Often describes a person's temperament or a specific luxury that provides excessive pleasure.


SIMPLE

She treated herself to an indulgent chocolate cake.

CONTEXTUAL

The grandparents were quite indulgent, allowing the children to stay up late and eat sweets whenever they visited.

COMPLEX

While the critic praised the film's visual beauty, he found the three-hour runtime to be an indulgent display of the director's ego rather than a necessary narrative choice.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From Latin indulgēns, indulgentem, present participle of indulgēre.

Usage

Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be', 'seem', or 'become'; frequently takes the preposition 'of' when directed at a person or behavior.

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