banquet

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.

A ceremonial dinner party for many people.

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.

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.

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.

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.