guzzle

present singular third person guzzles · participle present guzzling · participle past guzzled · past guzzled · alternative obsolete guzle · alternative obsolete guzzel

1. informaltransitiveTo drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto.

   What do you get when you guzzle down sweets, / Eating as much as an elephant eats?

   1971, Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, “Oompa Loompa, Doompa-Dee-Do”, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

   3 more examples

   No more her care shall fill the hollow tray, / To fat the guzzling hogs with floods of whey.

   1720, John Gay, “Friday; or, the Dirge”, in Poems on Several Occasions

   They had a delightful meal, eating as much as possible, for whenever they stopped eating the Puddin" sang out-- "Eat away, chew away, munch and bolt and guzzle, Never leave the table till you're full up to the muzzle."

   1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 22

   It is Boxing Day in a football ground, and all we can do is sprawl over the plastic, hurling instructions and vague encouragement. The seat is an extension of the sofa, the match another Pick of the Day in the Radio Times. Some are wearing Santa hats, some have been drinking only six or seven hours after last stopping, guzzling away, topping up their levels to reach pie-eyed delirium.

   2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football

2. datedinformalintransitiveTo consume alcoholic beverages, especially frequently or habitually.

   A comparison more properly bestowed on those that came to guzzle in his wine cellar.

   1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes

   2 more examples

   Well-seasoned bowls the gossip's spirits raise, Who, while she guzzles, chats the doctor's praise.

   1684, Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse

   Every theatre had it's footman's gallery: […] they guzzled, devoured, debauched, cheated, played cards, bullied visitors for vails: […]

   1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians

3. broadlyinformaltransitiveTo consume anything quickly, greedily, or to excess, as if with insatiable thirst; often said of gas-powered vehicles.

   This car just guzzles petrol.

   1 more example

   2004, Mike Rigby, quoted in The Freefoam Roofline Report, https://web.archive.org/web/20160313225853/http://michaelrigbyassociates.com/pages/research/quarterly/readreport35166.htm China continues full steam ahead and the Americans continue to guzzle fuel, while supply becomes restricted.

4. informalintransitiverareTo flow copiously; to spray out.

   Blood guzzled from the wound.

   1 more example

   The barrel guzzled out beer from the hole.

plural guzzles · alternative obsolete guzle · alternative obsolete guzzel

1. dateduncountableDrink; intoxicating liquor.

   Where squander'd away the tiresome minutes of your evening leisure over seal'd Winchesters of threepenny guzzle! — Tom Brown

2. datedA drinking bout; a debauch.
3. datedAn insatiable thing or person.
4. UKobsoleteprovincialA drain or ditch; a gutter; sometimes, a small stream. Also called guzzen.

   Means't thou that senseless, sensual epicure, / That sink of filth, that guzzle most impure?

   1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie

   1 more example

   This is all one thing as if hee should goe about to jussle her into some filthy stinking guzzle or ditch.

   1623, W. Whately, Bride Bush

5. The throat.