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drink

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Drink

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: drĭngk, IPA(key): /dɹɪŋk/, [d̠ɹ̠˔ʷɪŋk]
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋk
  • Hyphenation: drink

Etymology 1

From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan (“to drink, swallow up, engulf”), from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp”), nasalised variant of *dʰreǵ- (“to draw, glide”).

Cognates

Cognate with Yola drink (“to drink”), North Frisian drank, drainke, drink, drinke (“to drink”), West Frisian drinke (“to drink”), Alemannic German trénge, trenhu, trinche, tringhien, trinke (“to drink”), Bavarian dringa, trinckn, trinkhn, trinkn (“to drink”), Cimbrian trinkan, trinkhan (“to drink”), Dutch, Low German drinken (“to drink”), German, Mòcheno trinken (“to drink”), Luxembourgish drénken (“to drink”), Yiddish טרינקען (trinken, “to drink”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål drikke (“to drink”), Elfdalian drikka (“to drink”), Faroese, Icelandic drekka (“to drink”), Jutish drenk (“to drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikka, drikke (“to drink”), Swedish dricka (“to drink”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌺𐌰𐌽 (drigkan, “to drink”), Vandalic drincan (“to drink”), French trinquer (“to booze, drink alcohol”), Italian trincare (“to knock back (a drink)”), Spanish trincar (“to get drunk”).

Verb

drink (third-person singular simple present drinks, present participle drinking, simple past drank or (Southern US) drunk or (nonstandard) drinked, past participle drunk or (chiefly archaic) drunken or (dialectal) drank or (all, nonstandard, archaic or obsolete) drinked or drinken or dranken)

  1. (ambitransitive) To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
    Synonyms: gulp, imbibe, quaff, sip, see Thesaurus:drink
    He drank the water I gave him.
    You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
  2. (transitive, metonymic) To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).
    Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.
  3. (intransitive) To consume alcoholic beverages.
    Synonyms: drink alcohol, booze
    Near-synonyms: hit the bottle, hit the sauce
    You've been drinking, haven't you?
    No thanks, I don't drink.
    Everyone who is drinking is drinking, but not everyone who is drinking is drinking.
  4. (transitive) To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.
    • 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:
      Let the purple violets drink the stream.
  5. (transitive) To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.
  6. (transitive, archaic) To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially:
    • 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:
      Drink to lofty hopes that cool —
      Visions of a perfect State : Drink we, last, the public fool,
      Frantic love and frantic hate.
    1. To 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)').
      • 1710, Thomas Hearne, Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne:
        At the same time were great Acclamations & they drunk Damnation to Dr. Sacheverell, Mr Tilly, and all the Drs friends.
      • 1712 December 30 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “FRIDAY, 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:
        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. […]
        The spelling has been modernized.
    2. (obsolete, with carouse) [with to ‘someone or something’]
      • 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:
        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.
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To smoke, as tobacco.
    • 1630, Taylor, John ("The Water Poet", 1578–1653), A Proclomation or approbation from the King of execration, to euery nation, for Tobaccoes propogration:
      And some men now live ninety yeeres and past,
      Who never dranke tobacco first nor last.
  8. Used in phrasal verbs: drink down, drink in, drink off, drink out, drink to, drink up.
Derived terms
Terms derived from drink (verb)
Descendants
  • Belizean Creole: jrink
  • Chinese Pidgin English: drinkee, dlinkee
  • Sranan Tongo: dringi
    • Aukan: diingi
    • Saramaccan: diíngi
  • Tok Pisin: dringim
  • → Esperanto: drinki
  • → Ido: drinkar
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Middle English drink, drinke (also as drinche, drunch), from Old English drynċ, from Proto-Germanic *drunkiz, *drankiz.

Cognates

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Dronk (“drink”), Cimbrian gatrànkh (“drink”), Dutch drank, dronk (“drink”), German Getränk, trank, Trunk (“drink”), German Low German Drank, Drunk (“drink”), Vilamovian gytrenḱ (“drink”), Danish drik (“drink, beverage”), Icelandic drykkur (“drink, beverage”), Norwegian Bokmål drikk (“drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikk, drykk (“drink, alcohol”), Swedish dryck (“drink”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌺 (draggk), 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌺 (dragk, “drink”).

Noun

drink (countable and uncountable, plural drinks)

  2. A beverage.
    I’d like another drink please.
  3. (uncountable) Drinks in general; something to drink.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 25:35:
      For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me 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:
      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.
  4. A type of beverage (usually mixed).
    My favourite drink is the White Russian.
  6. A (served) alcoholic beverage.
    Hypernym: beverage
    Can I buy you a drink?
  7. The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.
    He was about to take a drink from his root beer.
  8. Alcoholic beverages in general.
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
      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.
    • 1979 February 10, Michael Bronski, “An American Dream”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 11:
      By the late twenties father has died of drink and his wife is left to raise their two sons.
    • 1995, “Daddy's on the Drink” (track 12), in Shame-Based Man‎, performed by Bruce McCulloch:
      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.
    • 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:
      […] 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.
  9. A standard drink.
    A drink of wine is about 5 ounces
    • 1963, Vital and Health Statistics: Programs and collection procedures, page 125:
      And when (SUBJECT) was 55, would you say (he/she) drank more than, less than, or about 2 to 3 drinks a day?
  10. (colloquial, with the) Any body of water.
    If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!
    • 1996, John French+, A Drop in the Ocean: Dramatic Accounts of Aircrew Saved From the Sea, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 99:
      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.
    • 2011, Levi Johnston, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 34:
      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.
    • 2012, Jack R. Myers, Shot at and Missed: Recollections of a World War II Bombardier, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 31:
      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.
  11. (Australia, figurative) A downpour; a cloudburst; a rainstorm; a deluge; a lot of rain.
    • 2023 April 13, 07:56 am (UTC+10/AEST), in News Breakfast, season 2023, episode 74, spoken by Nate Byrne, Melbourne, Australia: ABC News:
      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].
  12. (informal) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube:
      He [a sea-serpent] was giant, massive. A huge drink of man-eater. But even now, you know, I could take him.
Usage notes
Synonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from drink (noun)
Descendants
Translations
"the drink"- colloquially, any body of water
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch drinken, from Middle Dutch drinken, from Old Dutch drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną.

Pronunciation

Verb

drink (present drink, present participle drinkende, past participle gedrink)

  1. to drink

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation

Noun

drink m inan

  1. drink (a (mixed) alcoholic beverage)

Declension

Declension of drink (velar masculine inanimate)
More information singular, plural ...

Further reading

Danish

Etymology

From English drink.

Noun

drink c (singular definite drinken, plural indefinite drinks)

  1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Inflection

More information common gender, singular ...

Synonyms

  • sjus c

Further reading

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Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English drink.

Noun

drink m (plural drinks, no diminutive)

  1. (Belgium) a social event were beverages are served, with or without snacks, e.g. as a celebration
  2. (Netherlands) a beverage, a drink

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

drink

  1. inflection of drinken:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative
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French

Etymology

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation

Noun

drink m (plural drinks)

  1. a reception or afterparty where alcohol is served

Further reading

Italian

Low German

North Frisian

Polish

Portuguese

Swedish

West Frisian

Yola

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