indulgent

/ɪnˈdʌldʒənt/

/ɪnˈdʌldʒənt/

Someone who is self-indulgent gives themselves a lot of treats. Parents who are indulgent cave to every desire their child expresses. Indulgent means lenient, or overly generous.

Indulgent is a word that, here in Puritanical North America, is hard to know how to take. Is it okay to “indulge yourself” as so many spa advertisements suggest? Or is indulgent always associated with excess? You can indulge fantasies of figuring out the answer, or you can give in to an indulgent shrug and move on to another word.

Definitions of indulgent

1. adjective

   characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone
   “indulgent grandparents”

   synonyms:

   gluttonous

   given to excess in consumption of especially food or drink

   decadent, effete

   marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay

   betting, card-playing, dissipated, sporting

   preoccupied with the pursuit of pleasure and especially games of chance

   epicurean, luxuriant, luxurious, sybaritic, voluptuary, voluptuous

   displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses

   gay

   given to social pleasures often including dissipation

   epicurean, hedonic, hedonistic

   devoted to pleasure

   hard, heavy, intemperate

   given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors

   overindulgent

   excessively indulgent

   pampering

   gratifying tastes, appetites, or desires

   decadent, self-indulgent

   indulgent of your own appetites and desires

   antonyms:

   nonindulgent

   characterized by strictness, severity, or restraint

   abstemious

   sparing in consumption of especially food and drink

   austere, stern

   of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect

   blue, puritanic, puritanical

   morally rigorous and strict

   corrective, disciplinal, disciplinary

   designed to promote discipline

   monkish

   befitting a monk; inclined to self-denial

   renunciant, renunciative, self-abnegating, self-denying

   used especially of behavior

   self-disciplined, self-restraining

   used of nonindulgent persons

   severe, spartan

   very harsh or strict, especially when dealing with others
2. adjective

   tolerant or lenient
   “indulgent parents risk spoiling their children”

   synonyms: lenient, soft

   permissive

   granting or inclined or able to grant permission; not strict in discipline
3. adjective

   being favorably inclined
   “an indulgent attitude”

   synonyms:

   favorable, favourable

   encouraging or approving or pleasing