epicurean

• WordNet 3.6
  • adj epicurean displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses "an epicurean banquet","enjoyed a luxurious suite with a crystal chandelier and thick oriental rugs","Lucullus spent the remainder of his days in voluptuous magnificence","a chinchilla robe of sybaritic lavishness"
  • adj epicurean devoted to pleasure "a hedonic thrill","lives of unending hedonistic delight","epicurean pleasures"
  • adj Epicurean of Epicurus or epicureanism "Epicurean philosophy"
  • n epicurean a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)
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• • Epicurean A follower or Epicurus.
  • Epicurean Given to luxury; adapted to luxurious tastes; luxurious; pertaining to good eating. "Courses of the most refined and epicurean dishes."
  • Epicurean One given to epicurean indulgence.
  • Epicurean Pertaining to Epicurus, or following his philosophy. "The sect Epicurean ."
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• • epicurean Of, pertaining to, or founded by Epicurus, the Greek philosopher; relating to the doctrines of Epicurus.
  • epicurean [cap. or lowercase] Devoted to the pursuit of pleasure as the chief good.
  • epicurean [lowercase] Given to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; of luxurious tastes or habits, especially in eating and drinking; fond of good living.
  • epicurean [lowercase] Contributing to the pleasures of the table; fit for an epicure.
  • n epicurean A follower of Epicurus, the great sensualistic philosopher of antiquity (341-270 b. c.), who founded a school at Athens about 307 b. c. He held, like Bentham, that pleasure is the only possible end of rational action, and that the ultimate pleasure is freedom from disturbance. In logic the Epicureans are distinguished from all the other ancient schools, not only in maintaining an experiential theory of cognition and the validity of inductive reasoning, but also in denying the value of definitions, syllogism, and the other apparatus of the a priori method. Like J. S. Mill, they based induction upon the uniformity of nature. Epicurus was very strenuous in the advocacy of natural causes for all phenomena, and in resisting hypotheses of the interference of supernatural beings in nature. He adopted the atomistic theory of Democritus, while bringing into it the doctrine of chance, which is the very life of that theory. His views were thus more like those of a modern scientist than were those of any other philosopher of antiquity. Owing, however, to the natural repugnance to doctrines seeming to lower the nature of man, Epicurus and his school have been much hated and abused; so that an Epicurean has come to mean also a mere votary of pleasure. See 2.
  • n epicurean [cap. or lowercase] A votary of pleasure, or one who pursues the pleasures of sense as the chief good; one who is fond of good living; a person of luxurious tastes, especially in eating and drinking; a gourmet; an epicure.
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• • adj Epicurean pertaining to Epicurus: given to luxury
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