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GORGE, strictly the French word for the throat considered externally, Hence it is applied in falconry to a hawk's crop,

and thus, with the sense of something greedy or ravenous, to food given to a hawk and to the contents of a hawk's crop or stomach. It is from this sense that the expression of a person's " gorge rising at " anything in the sense of loathing or disgust is derived. " Gorge," from analogy with " throat," is used with the meaning of a narrow opening as of a ravine or valley between hills; in fortification, of the neck of an outwork or bastion; and in architecture, of the narrow part of a Roman Doric column, between the echinus and the astragal. From " gorge " also comes a diminutive " gorget," a portion of a woman's costume in the middle ages, being a close form of wimple covering the neck and upper part of the breast, and also that part of the body armour covering the neck and collar-bone (see GORGET). The word " gorgeous," of splendid or magnificent appearance, comes from the 0. Fr. gorgias, with the same meaning, and has very doubtfully been connected with gorge, a ruffle or neck-covering, of a supposed elaborate kind.