I can’t understand the difference in nuance between
“He crammed himself with cake.”
and
“He engorged himself on cake.”


Could you please explain it to me?

See a translation

I think, for this meaning, using "gorged" is better than "engorged".

Basically, "engorged" back in history meant "to eat excessively", but that is mostly historical now. So that is considered an 'archaic' meaning for "engorged", and in modern English we mostly use "gorged" to say that meaning now. ("gorged" came from a shortened version of "engorged", so the meaning moved over to use "gorged" for that instead, and "engorged" gained a different meaning instead (I will explain that in a moment). After the "excessive eating" meaning moved to = "gorged" instead, then the meaning also broadened a little bit, so now in modern English "gorged" means "to eat large amounts, be greedy with eating large amounts of food to an excessive degree, filling yourself with food to an extremely indulgent level", etc. So it gained a few more nuances.


Meanwhile, "engorged" changed meaning (because "gorged" was used for that first meaning now). So now in modern English, "engorged" means to basically swell up and expand because it is filled with too much blood or water or fluid.

So basically what this means:
- filling something with enough fluid so it swells and expands in size = engorged.
- filling yourself with too much food, eating too greedily, excessive eating = gorged

So for this meaning in your sentence, you will want "gorged".
"He gorged himself at the feast"
"The rich gorge themselves while the impoverished starve."

examples for "engorged":
"The water balloon became engorged as it slowly filled up."
"His hand was badly injured. The skin was engorged and it had become an angry red from the infection."

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The difference between "crammed" and "gorged" is not very big, but there are a few differences.

"crammed" -- tends to focus on stuffing something into a compact space, trying to fit as much of something as possible into a limited space.
- So students might try to "cram" as much studying into the last day before a big test (almost like they are trying to fit several weeks worth of studying into just a few hours, trying to make up for lost time, trying to do more in the time left even if it is not practical.).
- Or someone might try to cram as many pieces of food into their mouth at once, maybe on a dare.
- Cramming things into a box or suitcase would mean that you are packing it very tightly, and trying to squeeze more items into the space, even if there isn't quite enough room to fit it all inside comfortably.

So for food...it implies that they are stuffing themselves, eating even after they are full, trying to eat more food than they really have room for in their stomach, making themselves uncomfortable because they are stuffed. Perhaps they want to try too many different dishes, so they overeat and overdo it. So filling their mouth as full as possible (instead of slowing down and eating slower) OR filling their stomach as full as possible so that they get uncomfortably full. It is just that idea of trying to fit as much as possible, tightly packing and squeezing it into a smaller space....and getting carried away.

And "gorging" on food implies that it is just greedy, excessive. It is more based on how it looks to other people. They are busy eating large amounts of food, because they want it and enjoy it. But it is so much food, so shameless, it looks greedy and excessive, it is uncomfortable for other people to watch.
"He gorged himself on cakes and pies." - ate excessively, too many of them, ate a large number of them. It could be very indulgent (it was a special occasion so he got carried away for the day). Or overindulgent (he wanted some of his favorite food...so he ate five helpings of it). Or it could be very selfish (he gorged on all of the treats and left nothing for anyone else). Or it could be shameful and lacking in manners (he ate more than was polite, ate messily, embarrassed his friends/family), etc. There's a few other possible nuances with this as well... but I think you can probably see the patterns forming with it.

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Using "gorged" can be slightly critical and judging them and disapproving of them....or it can be very negative and critical of them. So it has some range in how severe or mild it is, but it is always at least slightly critical and negative in the nuances.

If someone eats a lot of something but it is positive, then you could use more neutral words like "stuffed" or "crammed". Or more positive ones like "he ate heartily" or "he had a healthy appetite" or "he polished it all off and then went back for more" (just to list a few examples).