the.com/debauch
To lead someone from virtue into pleasure, then let them drive themselves the rest of the way.
means To corrupt someone's morals by luring them into excessive drinking, sex, or indulgence — or to indulge in such excess oneself.
from From French débaucher, meaning to lure someone away from their duty or work — débauche originally carried the sense of leaving a job or workshop without leave. The root is tangled up with Old French bauche, possibly meaning a workshop or beam, so the image underneath is literally of someone being coaxed off the job site and away from honest labor, toward looser company. By the time it settled into English in the 1500s, the 'quitting work' sense had curdled into 'quitting virtue' — the walking-off became a moral one.
- origin
- French desbaucher, to lure from a trade
- original sin
- first meant luring workers off the job
- related word
- debauchery is the aftermath, not the verb
- usage tip
- sounds worse than most things people actually do