drink off

present singular third person drinks off · participle present drinking off · past drank off · participle past drunk off

1. datedTo drink the entirety of in a short period; originally and especially, in a single gulp.

   1810, Nicolas Gouin Dufief, Nature Displayed in Her Mode of Teaching Language to Man, T. & G. Palmer, page 341, When you are thirsty, you drink off the whole cup at once.

   5 more examples

   Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilled liquor drink thou off; […]

   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 IV, scene i]

   Hamlet: Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? / Follow my mother.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

   1639, Henry Glapthorne, The Tragedy of Albertus Wallenstein, Late Duke of Friedland, and General to the Emperor Ferdinand the Second, Thomas Paine, page 66, An ’twere the Tun of Heidleberg, I’d drink it / Off with as much ease as a leaguer can / In a grim sutler’s house of thatch.

   1656, John Cleveland, "Upon Tom of Chriſt-Church," in The Works of Mr. John Cleveland, Containing his Poems, Orations, Epiſtles, Collected into One Volume, With the Life Of the Author, R. Holt (1687), page 374, We in all haſte drink off our Wine, / As if we never ſhould drink more : / So that the Reck’ning after nine / Is larger now than that before.

   I then obliged a Man to drink off the Bowl, who immediately expired.

   1758, Sarah Fielding, The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, page 164