banquet

noun

1. A large celebratory meal; a feast.

   “True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed; / It is a banquet to me.”

   “And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.”

   “So comes a Reck’ning when the Banquet’s o’er, / The dreadful Reck’ning, and Men ſmile no more.”

   “[T]he hazels rose / Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, / A virgin scene! — A little while I stood, / Breathing with such suppression of the heart / As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint / Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed / The banquet, […]”

   “Who goes to dine must take his feast / Or find the banquet mean; / The table is not laid without / Till it is laid within.”

2. A ceremonial dinner party for many people.
3. (archaic)A dessert; a course of sweetmeats.

   “Wee'll dine in the great roome, but let the muſick / And banquet be prepar'd here.”

   “At Inverkeithing the teetotalers objected to this profligate expenditure, so the Provost and magistrates manfully paid for their “cookies” out of their own pockets. At Dunse, instead of a cake and wine banquet, there was “a fruit conversazione,” whatever that may be.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To participate in a banquet; to feast.

   “I am resolved; 'tis but a three years' fast: / The mind shall banquet, though the body pine: / Fat paunches have lean pates, and dainty bits / Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.”

   “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

   “Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, / I would not taste thy treasonous offer.”

   “"Ay, ay," said Wamba, who had resumed his attendance on his master, "rare feeding there will be—pity that the noble Athelstane cannot banquet at his own funeral.—But he," continued the Jester, lifting up his eyes gravely, "is supping in Paradise, and doubtless does honour to the cheer."”

2. (obsolete)To have dessert after a feast.

   “1580, George Cavendish, quoted by John Stow (ed.), The Annales of England, Faithfully collected out of the most autenticall Authors, Records, and other Monuments of Antiquitie, 1600 edition, “Henry the eight.,” p. 907, Then was the banquetting chamber in the tilt yard at Greenewich, to the which place these strangers were conducted by the noblest personages in the court, where they did both sup and banquet.”

3. (transitive)To treat with a banquet or sumptuous entertainment of food; to feast.

   “Not possible; for who shall bear your part / And be in Padua here Vincentio's son; / Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends, / Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?”

   “1800, Frederick Schiller, The Piccolomini, or the First Part of Wallenstein, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: Longman & Rees, Act I, scene i, p. 2, Just in time to banquet The illustrious company assembled there.”

   “They treated them with profound reverence, as beings descended from heaven, and conducted them to a spacious house, the residence of the cacique, where they were banquetted in their simple but hospitable way, with bread and various fruits of excellent flavour, and different kinds of beverages which have been already mentioned.”