overindulge

• over-indulge

over- +‎ indulge

overindulge (third-person singular simple present overindulges, present participle overindulging, simple past and past participle overindulged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To indulge to excess.
   • 1871, Hugh Doherty, Organic Philosophy; Or, Man's True Place in Nature...: Outlines of biology ..., Trübner & Co., pages 448–449:

     Many well formed and well fed bodies over-indulge in sensuality, take little or no exercise, and remain sickly throughout life ; many well formed minds, over-indulge in mere gossip, frivolous conversations, and reading novels, take no serious thought or study, and remain common-place through life; or worse than common-place, being more or less intensely perverted in proportion to original endowments of mental capacity.

   • 1921, M.V. O'Shea, Mental Development and Education, MacMillan Company, page 29:

     Children who overindulge in sweets often lose flesh, partly because an undue amount of sugar overtaxes the eliminative organs and upsets the bodily machinery.

   • 1998, Patricia A. Nachman, Ph.D., You and Your Only Child: The Joys, Myths, and Challenges of Raising an Only Child, Skylight Press, page 90:

     As the parent of one child, it may be most tempting for you to overindulge your youngster with things.