The act or process of indulging excessively in sensual pleasures, especially eating, drinking, or other physical indulgences in a way that harms your health or character.
From French débaucher (to corrupt or seduce) combined with the English suffix -ment. The French root likely comes from Old French de- (away from) and bauche (deception), evolving to mean abandoning proper behavior through excessive indulgence.
The word perfectly captures how excess often leads us 'away from' (de-) our best selves—it's used in historical texts to describe what people thought caused the decline of empires, from Rome to Victorian society's concerns about 'corrupting influences.'
Nominalization embedding gendered moral judgment; implies corruption of innocence, historically applied asymmetrically by gender.
Replace with specific language: 'pressure to drink excessively' or 'coercion' rather than 'debauchment.'
["corruption","coercion","exploitation"]
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