drink

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See also: Drink

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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).

Verb[edit]

Woman drinking a glass of water

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. (transitive, intransitive) To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
    He drank the water I gave him.
    You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
  2. (transitive, metonymically) To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).
    Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.
  3. (intransitive) To consume alcoholic beverages.
    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, obsolete) To smoke, as tobacco.
    • 1630, John Taylor, 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.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from drink (verb)
Related terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • Aukan: diingi
  • Chinese Pidgin English: drinkee, dlinkee
  • Sranan Tongo: dringi
  • Tok Pisin: dringim
  • Esperanto: drinki
  • Ido: drinkar
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

drink (countable and uncountable, plural drinks)

  1. A beverage.
    I’d like another drink please.
  2. (uncountable) Drinks in general; something to drink
  3. A type of beverage (usually mixed).
    My favourite drink is the White Russian.
  4. A (served) alcoholic beverage.
    Can I buy you a drink?
  5. The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.
    He was about to take a drink from his root beer.
  6. 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.
    • 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[1]:
      [] 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.
  7. 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?
  8. (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.
  9. (Australia, figuratively) A downpour; a cloudburst; a rainstorm; a deluge; a lot of rain.
    • 2023 April 13, News Breakfast, season 2023, episode 74, Melbourne, Australia: ABC News, spoken by Nate Byrne, 07:56 am (UTC+10/AEST):
      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].
Usage notes[edit]
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from drink (noun)
Descendants[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Afrikaans[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. to drink

Czech[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m inan

  1. drink (a (mixed) alcoholic beverage)

Declension[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • drink in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • drink in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drink.

Noun[edit]

drink c (singular definite drinken, plural indefinite drinks)

  1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Inflection[edit]

Synonyms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from English drink.

Noun[edit]

drink m (plural drinks)

  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[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb[edit]

drink

  1. first-person singular present indicative of drinken
  2. imperative of drinken

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m (plural drinks)

  1. a reception or afterparty where alcohol is served

Further reading[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m (usually invariable, plural (dated) drinks)

  1. drink (served beverage and mixed beverage)
    Synonym: bevanda
    • 1970, Mercedes Giardini, transl., “Ⅻ”, in Il padrino, Milan: dall'Oglio editore, translation of The Godfather by Mario Puzo, page 160:
      «Non sono in forma con la voce», rispose. «E con tutta sincerità, sono stufo di sentirmi cantare». Sorseggiarono i drinks.
      "My voice is not doing well", he replied. "And, in all honesty, I'm tired of hearing myself singing". They sipped their drinks.
    • 2013, Paolo Sorrentino, La grande bellezza, spoken by Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), 01:39:42 from the start:
      Io berrò molti drink, ma non così tanti da diventare molesto.
      I'll drink many drinks, but not so many to become annoying.

Further reading[edit]

  • drink on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia it
  • drink in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Low German[edit]

Verb[edit]

drink

  1. first-person singular of drinken

Polish[edit]

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m inan

  1. cocktail (served alcoholic beverage)

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

verb

Further reading[edit]

  • drink in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • drink in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m (plural drinks)

  1. Alternative form of drinque

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink c

  1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Declension[edit]

Declension of drink 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative drink drinken drinkar drinkarna
Genitive drinks drinkens drinkars drinkarnas

Derived terms[edit]

Yola[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan, from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan.

Verb[edit]

drink

  1. to drink
    • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 4:
      Drink a heall to a breede. "Shud with, a voorneen."
      Drink a health to the bride, "Here's to you, my dear."

References[edit]

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 96