Definition of "epicurism" [ep•i•cu•rism]

• The beliefs, tastes, or lifestyle of an epicure. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There is a man here who loves a good dinner; Darteneuf [4] we might learn improvements in epicurism from him. one day he had procured two fine jacks for dinner on the following day. & to have them fresh put them in a trough of water, over night. the next morning — one had eaten the other."
• "Thus, the alimentiveness of such animals as the dog, usually definite with regard to quantity and quality, can be pampered or educated up to a kind of epicurism, that is, an indefiniteness of object and action."
• "After they had pulled, in this manner enough for an ample feast, they set-to, and showed, whatever might be said of the way in which their supper was procured, that their epicurism was a little more refined than that of the Scottish witches, who, according to Gellie Duncan's confession, feasted upon dead men's flesh in the old kirk of Berwick."