bedrink

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English *bedrinken, from Old English bedrincan (to drink in, drink up, absorb), from Proto-West Germanic *bidrinkan; conflated with Middle English bidrenchen (to soak up, steep) (attested in Middle English bidrenkt (soaked, drenched)), from Old English *bedrenċan (to drench completely), equivalent to be- +‎ drink and be- +‎ drench. Cognate with Dutch bedrinken (to drink up, get drunk), German betrinken (to get drunk).

Verb

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bedrink (third-person singular simple present bedrinks, present participle bedrinking, simple past bedrank, past participle bedrunk or bedrunken)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To drink in; drink up; drink to the fullest
    • 1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish life and character:
      [...] not far from Tophana — the place of cannons — and doth there foolishly, selfishly, and sottishly bedrink himself unroyally drunk with bottle after bottle of champagne, [...]
    • 1889, Solomon Caesar Malan, Original notes on the Book of Proverbs:
      "Thus the unsteady woman [bedrinks] intoxicates the firm and resolute man."
  2. (reflexive, archaic) to get drunk
    • 1899, University of Virginia, The Virginia spectator:
      That "moreover it behooveth to scourge all such heretics as would have it that these herein-afore-mentioned swineherds had bedrunk themselves and did cunningly adduce this tale of witchery to the end that they might escape meet [...]"