Dictionary entry

Gorge

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Gorge (?), n. [F. gorge, LL. gorgia, throat, narrow pass, and gorga abyss, whirlpool, prob. fr. L. gurgea whirlpool, gulf, abyss; cf. Skr. gargara whirlpool, gṛ to devour. Cf. Gorget.] 1. The throat; the gullet; the canal by which food passes to the stomach.

Wherewith he gripped her gorge with so great pain. Spenser.

Now, how abhorred!... my gorge rises at it. Shak.

2. A narrow passage or entrance; as: (a) A defile between mountains. (b) The entrance into a bastion or other outwork of a fort; — usually synonymous with rear. See Illust. of Bastion.

3. That which is gorged or swallowed, especially by a hawk or other fowl.

And all the way, most like a brutish beast,

e spewed up his gorge, that all did him detest. Spenser.

4. A filling or choking of a passage or channel by an obstruction; as, an ice gorge in a river.

5. (Arch.) A concave molding; a cavetto. Gwilt.

6. (Naut.) The groove of a pulley.

Gorge circle(Gearing), the outline of the smallest cross section of a hyperboloid of revolution. — Gorge hook, two fishhooks, separated by a piece of lead. Knight.