drink

present singular third person drinks · participle present drinking · past drank · Southern US past drunk · nonstandard past drinked · participle past drunk · archaic participle past drunken · dialectal participle past drank · archaic nonstandard obsolete participle past drinked · participle past drinken · participle past dranken · alternative dhrink · alternative drank · alternative obsolete drinck · alternative obsolete drinke · alternative deliberate misspelling dink

1. ambitransitiveTo consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

   He drank the water I gave him.

   5 more examples

   You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

   […] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in bliſſe: / There drinks the Nectar with Ambroſia mixt […]

   1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC, folio 47, recto

   It was he who proposed the bowl of punch, which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty’s room, and which Gumbo concocted with exquisite skill.

   1857–1858, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume I, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858, →OCLC, page 283

   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   The vanilla latte he is now drinking is giving him disturbing flutters of a major conga line in his stomach

   2020, Patty Fischer, The Wind Whistles Wicked, Page Publishing Incorporated

   Synonyms: gulp, imbibe, quaff, sip, see Thesaurus:drink

2. metonymicallytransitiveTo consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).

   Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.

3. intransitiveTo consume alcoholic beverages.

   No thanks, I don't drink.

   5 more examples

   You've been drinking, haven't you?

   Everyone who is drinking is drinking, but not everyone who is drinking is drinking.

   I drink to the general joy of the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

   Bolingbroke always spoke freely when he had drunk freely.

   1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC

   The waiter came up, and I ordered a Coke for her—she didn't drink—and a Scotch and soda for myself, but the sonuvabitch wouldn't bring me one, so I had a Coke, too.

   1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 168

   Synonyms: drink alcohol, booze, hit the bottle, hit the sauce

4. transitiveTo take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.

   Let the purple violets drink the stream.

   1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

5. transitiveTo take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.

   to drink the cooler air

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

6. archaictransitiveTo toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially

   Drink to lofty hopes that cool — Visions of a perfect State : Drink we, last, the public fool, Frantic love and frantic hate.

   1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Vision of Sin”, in The Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1884, →OCLC, part iv, page 131

7. To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially:
   1. archaictransitiveTo express one's desire for the accomplishment of a toast, sentiment or event, to wish, hope (for), forward (especially as 'to drink the health (of someone)').

      At the same time were great Acclamations & they drunk Damnation to Dʳ. Sacheverell, Mʳ Tilly, and all the Dʳˢ friends.

      1710, Thomas Hearne, Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne

      1 more example

      I ought not to have neglected a request of one of my correspondents so long as I have; but I dare say I have given him time to add practice to profession. He sent me some time ago a bottle or two of excellent wine to drink the health of a gentleman had by the penny post advertised him of an egregious error in his conduct. […]

      1712 December 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “THURSDAY, December 19, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 433; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   2. archaicobsoletetransitive[with to ‘someone or something’]

      1 more example

      Had our great Pall ace the capacity To Campe this hoſt, we all would ſup together, And drinke Carowſes to the next dayes Fate Which promiſes Royall perill, Trumpetters With brazen dinne blaſt you the Cittics eare, Make mingle with our ratling Tabourines, That heauen and earth may ſtrike their ſounds together, Applauding our approach.

      c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii], pages 360-361, columns 2-1

8. obsoletetransitiveTo smoke, as tobacco.

   And some men now live ninety yeeres and past, Who never dranke tobacco first nor last.

   1630, Taylor, John ("The Water Poet", 1578–1653), A Proclomation or approbation from the King of execration, to euery nation, for Tobaccoes propogration

9. Used in phrasal verbs: drink down, drink in, drink off, drink out, drink to, drink up.

plural drinks · alternative dhrink · alternative drank · alternative obsolete drinck · alternative obsolete drinke · alternative deliberate misspelling dink · alternative pronunciation spelling thrink

1. countableuncountableA beverage.

   What kind of drink would you like? We have soft drinks and hard drinks.

   Synonyms: beverage

2. uncountableDrinks in general; something to drink.

   For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 25:35

   1 more example

   These sources do not, however, state why the drink is called lambswool. The name comes from the way the apples are roasted until they split open, and their pulp froths over the skin; this is used to float on top of the bowl of drink.

   2024 September 6, Ceri Sullivan, “Shakespeare’s Will, Lambswool, and Puck’s Joke”, in Notes and Queries, volume 71, number 4, Oxford University Press, →DOI, page 406

3. countableuncountableA type of beverage (usually mixed).

   My favourite drink is the White Russian.

   Synonyms: beverage

4. countableuncountableA (served) alcoholic beverage.

   Can I buy you a drink?

5. countableuncountableThe action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.

   He was about to take a drink from his root beer.

   Synonyms: gulp, sip, swig

6. countableuncountableAlcoholic beverages in general.

   By the late twenties father has died of drink and his wife is left to raise their two sons.

   1979 February 10, Michael Bronski, “An American Dream”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 11

   3 more examples

   She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

   1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court

   The face of work is a drunk man in the same chair, chewing on the same bone for five thousand nights. The face of work is a, coffee cup in hand, frustrated: "You don't get it. They all don't get it. You don't understand, man." Daddy's on the drink again.

   1995, “Daddy's on the Drink” (track 12), in Shame-Based Man, performed by Bruce McCulloch

   […] she was indeed Amanda in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

   2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: alcoholic beverage

7. countableuncountableA standard drink.

   A drink of wine is about 5 ounces

   1 more example

   And when (SUBJECT) was 55, would you say (he/she) drank more than, less than, or about 2 to 3 drinks a day?

   1963, Vital and Health Statistics: Programs and collection procedures, page 125

8. colloquialcountableuncountableAny body of water.

   If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!

   3 more examples

   When in mid-Channel the speed slowed and I was informed by A.C. Russell that another dinghy had been spotted. This turned out to contain a Canadian fighter pilot who had been in the drink for three days and was in rather a bad way. He said he had seen all the aircraft flying over in the two days before D-Day and since, but no one had sighted him.

   1996, John French+, A Drop in the Ocean: Dramatic Accounts of Aircrew Saved From the Sea, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 99

   In seconds, we went from sitting in a boat to threading ice-cold water. I wasn't wearing a life jacket and am not the best paddler, but there I was, in the drink, splashing around.

   2011, Levi Johnston, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 34

   If the planes couldn't make it, they would go in the drink, eject their rubber lifeboats, inflate them, climb in, and pray for the Navy to pick them up before the Germans did.

   2012, Jack R. Myers, Shot at and Missed: Recollections of a World War II Bombardier, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 31

9. AustraliacountablefigurativelyuncountableA downpour; a cloudburst; a rainstorm; a deluge; a lot of rain.

   1 more example

   Now this is going to bring some huge totals of rainfall with it—200 to 400 millimetres with it—and along with that, these winds—gusts to 275 kilometres an hour near the cyclone [Cyclone Ilsa] core—and that's a real concern. That's very destructive winds and it's going to carry this inertia and the rain with it well inland. And we're likely going to be talking about a cyclone all the way through Friday as it slowly weakens, eventually washing that moisture out into a front going through the south. It means the southeast is getting a drink but W.A.'s northwest really copping it, individual totals significantly higher than what you're seeing here [on the weather map].

   2023 April 13, 07:56 am (UTC+10/AEST), in News Breakfast, season 2023, episode 74, spoken by Nate Byrne, Melbourne, Australia: ABC News

10. countableinformaluncountableAmount.

    He [a sea-serpent] was giant, massive. A huge drink of man-eater. But even now, you know, I could take him.

    2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube