gourmand

/ˌgʊrˈmɑnd/

Other forms: gourmands

A gourmand is someone obsessively and unhealthily devoted to eating good food and lots of it.

In Monty Python's film "The Meaning of Life," there is a character who literally explodes after eating just one more mint after a big meal. Well, that in a nutshell is a gourmand. Gourmand is not to be confused with gourmet. A gourmet is a connoisseur of good food who enjoys eating but doesn't do so to excess. A gourmet might find himself full in his favorite restaurant, but he would never explode. Both words are from the Medieval French term gourmant, meaning "glutton."

Definitions of gourmand

1. noun

   a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess
   synonyms: glutton, gourmandizer, trencherman

   type of:

   eater, feeder

   someone who consumes food for nourishment