drink

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See also: Drink

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English drynken, from Old English drincan (“to drink, swallow up, engulf”), 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”). Cognate with West Frisian drinke (“to drink”), Low German drinken (“to drink”), Dutch drinken (“to drink”), German trinken (“to drink”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drikke (“to drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikka (“to drink”).

Verb[edit]

drink (third-person singular simple present drinks, present participle drinking, simple past drank or (southern US) drunk or (nonstandard) drinked, past participle drunk or (informal) drank or (nonstandard) drinked or (obsolete or nonstandard) drunken)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
    • 1579, [Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Aegloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender, London: Hugh Singleton, OCLC 606515406; republished imprinted at London: By Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, 1586, OCLC 837880809, folio 47, recto:
      […] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in bliſſe: / There drinks the Nectar with Ambroſia mixt […]
    • c. 1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians, volume 1, page 341:
      It was he who proposed the bowl of punch, which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty’s room, and which Gumbo concocted with exquisite skill.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎[1]:
      That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
    He drank the water I gave him.
    You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
  2. (intransitive) To consume alcoholic beverages.
    You've been drinking, haven't you?
    No thanks, I don't drink.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thackeray
      Bolingbroke always spoke freely when he had drunk freely.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
      I drink to the general joy of the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo.
  3. (transitive) To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden
      Let the purple violets drink the stream.
  4. (transitive) To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Tennyson
      to drink the cooler air
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
      My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
      Let me […] drink delicious poison from thy eye.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To smoke, as tobacco.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Taylor (1630)
      And some men now live ninety years and past, / Who never drank tobacco first nor last.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from drink (verb)
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English drync, 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. A (served) alcoholic beverage.
    Can I buy you a drink?
  3. The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.
    He was about to take a drink from his root beer.
  4. A type of beverage (usually mixed).
    My favourite drink is the White Russian.
  5. 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[2]:
      […] 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.
  6. (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!
  7. (uncountable, archaic) Drinks in general; something to drink
Usage notes[edit]
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from drink (noun)
Translations[edit]
"the drink"- colloquially, any body of water
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Afrikaans[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Verb[edit]

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

  1. to drink

Czech[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drink.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m, inanimate

  1. drink (a (mixed) alcoholic beverage)

Declension[edit]

Danish[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink c (singular definite drinken, plural indefinite drinks)

  1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Inflection[edit]

Declension of drink
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative drink drinken drinks drinksene
genitive drinks drinkens drinks' drinksenes

Synonyms[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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 after party where alcohol is served

Further reading[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drink.

Noun[edit]

drink m (invariable)

  1. drink (served beverage and mixed beverage)
    Synonym: bevanda
    • 2013, Toni Servillo as Jep Gambardella, La grande bellezza, written by Paolo Sorrentino, 01:39:42 from the start:
      Io berrò molti drink, ma non così tanti da diventare molesto.

Further reading[edit]

Low German[edit]

Verb[edit]

drink

  1. First-person singular of drinken

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

drink m (plural drinks)

  1. Alternative form of drinque

Swedish[edit]

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

Related terms[edit]

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