Library / English Dictionary

GORGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The passage between the pharynx and the stomach

Synonyms:

esophagus; gorge; gullet; oesophagus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("gorge" is a kind of...):

passage; passageway (a path or channel or duct through or along which something may pass)

muscle system; muscular structure; musculature (the muscular system of an organism)

Meronyms (parts of "gorge"):

epicardia (the short part of the esophagus extending downward from the diaphragm to the stomach)

cardiac sphincter (the valve between the distal end of the esophagus and the stomach; the physiological sphincter at the esophagogastric junction)

Holonyms ("gorge" is a part of...):

alimentary canal; alimentary tract; digestive tract; digestive tube; gastrointestinal tract; GI tract (tubular passage of mucous membrane and muscle extending about 8.3 meters from mouth to anus; functions in digestion and elimination)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A narrow pass (especially one between mountains)

Synonyms:

defile; gorge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gorge" is a kind of...):

mountain pass; notch; pass (the location in a range of mountains of a geological formation that is lower than the surrounding peaks)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A deep ravine (usually with a river running through it)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gorge" is a kind of...):

ravine (a deep narrow steep-sided valley (especially one formed by running water))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gorge"):

flume; gulch (a narrow gorge with a stream running through it)

Instance hyponyms:

Cataract Canyon (a tributary of the Grand Canyon)

Grand Canyon (the enormous gorge of the Colorado River in northern Arizona)

Olduvai Gorge (a gorge in northeastern Tanzania where anthropologists have found some of the earliest human remains)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself

Example:

The kids binged on ice cream

Synonyms:

binge; englut; engorge; glut; gorge; gormandise; gormandize; gourmandize; ingurgitate; overeat; overgorge; overindulge; pig out; satiate; scarf out; stuff

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "gorge" is one way to...):

eat (eat a meal; take a meal)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

gorger (someone who eats food rapidly and greedily)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Here debauched a deep gorge, with precipitous, volcanic walls which no man could scale.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

At the coach window, as at the dinner-party, he hovered about us without a moment's intermission, like a great vulture: gorging himself on every syllable that I said to Agnes, or Agnes said to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He made it clear to Buck that he was to come, and they ran side by side through the sombre twilight, straight up the creek bed, into the gorge from which it issued, and across the bleak divide where it took its rise.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

All day the little band of Englishmen lay in the sheltered gorge, looking down upon the vast host of their unconscious enemies.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows in the valleys and gorges of velvety blackness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I traced the white road winding round the base of one mountain, and vanishing in a gorge between two; how I longed to follow it farther!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He ordered much meat to be given, and White Fang, gorged and sleepy by the fire, knew that the law had received its verification.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

One incident occurred, however, before we left the gorge, which is of importance in view of what came afterwards.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So clearly could one see cañon, gorge, and precipice, and the shadows that lie therein, that one looked unconsciously for the white surf-line and bellowing caverns where the sea charges on the land.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The bases of the mountains forming the gorge in which the little village lay, were richly green; and high above this gentler vegetation, grew forests of dark fir, cleaving the wintry snow-drift, wedge-like, and stemming the avalanche.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)