drink

English

Alternative forms

• dhrink (pronunciation spelling, imitating an Irish accent)
• drank (slang)
• drinck, drinke (obsolete)
• thrink (pronunciation spelling)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: drĭngk, IPA^(key): /dɹɪŋk/,

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

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”).

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. (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.

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Aegloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: , London: Hugh Singleton, , →OCLC; republished as The Shepheardes Calender , London: Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, , 1586, →OCLC, folio 47, recto:

     […] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in bliſſe: / There drinks the Nectar with Ambroſia mixt […]

   • 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume I, London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1858, →OCLC, page 283:

     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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

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.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I drink to the general joy of the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo.

   • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Company, , →OCLC:

     Bolingbroke always spoke freely when he had drunk freely.

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 168:

     The waiter came up, and I ordered a Coke for her—she didn't drink—and a Scotch and soda for myself, but the sonuvabitch wouldn't bring me one, so I had a Coke, too.

   • 2007, Matthew Weiner, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, in Mad Men, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Roger Sterling:

     You don't know how to drink. Your whole generation, you drink for the wrong reasons. My generation, we drink because it's good, because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar, because we deserve it. We drink because it's what men do.

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.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance.

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, , published 1717, →OCLC:

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):

     to drink the cooler air

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

• (consume (liquid) through the mouth): gulp, imbibe, quaff, sip, see also Thesaurus:drink
• (consume alcoholic beverages): drink alcohol, booze, hit the sauce

Derived terms

Related terms

• drunken, drunk, dranken

Descendants

• Aukan: diingi
• Belizean Creole: jrink
• Chinese Pidgin English: drinkee, dlinkee
• Sranan Tongo: dringi
• Tok Pisin: dringim
• → Esperanto: drinki
• → Ido: drinkar

Translations

Etymology 2

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

Noun

drink (countable and uncountable, plural drinks)

1. A beverage.

   I’d like another drink please.

2. (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

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.

   • 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.

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, 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].

Usage notes

• A plainer term than more elevated term beverage. Beverage is of French origin, while drink is of Old English origin, and this stylistic difference by origin is common; see list of English words with dual French and Anglo-Saxon variations.
• In the sense of any body of water the term is often associated with (a threat of) drowning.

Synonyms

• (served beverage): beverage, see also Thesaurus:beverage
• (served alcoholic beverage): beverage, see also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage
• (action of drinking): gulp, sip, swig
• (type of beverage): beverage
• (alcoholic beverages in general): alcohol

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Afrikaans

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

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

1. to drink

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

drink m inan

1. drink (a (mixed) alcoholic beverage)

Declension

Further reading

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

Danish

Etymology

From English drink.

Noun

drink c (singular definite drinken, plural indefinite drinks)

1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Inflection

Synonyms

• sjus c

Further reading

• “drink” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drɪŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: drink
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English drink.

Noun

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

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

drink

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

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English drink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʁiŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

drink m (plural drinks)

1. a reception or afterparty where alcohol is served

Further reading

• “drink”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English drink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdrink/
• Rhymes: -ink

Noun

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

1. drink (served beverage and mixed beverage)

   Synonym: bevanda

   • 1970, “Ⅻ”, in Mercedes Giardini, transl., 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, 01:39:42 from the start, in La grande bellezza, spoken by Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo):

     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

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

Low German

Verb

drink

1. first-person singular of drinken

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

drink

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from English drink. Doublet of trunek.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /driŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iŋk
• Syllabification: drink

Noun

drink m animal

1. cocktail, drink (served alcoholic beverage)
   • 2011, “Kawałek do tańca”, performed by Poparzeni Kawą Trzy:

     Jeszcze trochę do północy
     drink jak zagubiony pocisk
     strzelił mocno mi do głowy
     coraz trudniej się wysłowić.

     There's still some time before midnight
     The drink, like a lost bullet,
     shot me right in the head
     it's getting harder and harder to speak.

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: drink

Noun

drink m (plural drinks)

1. Alternative form of drinque

Swedish

Etymology

From English drink. Doublet of dryck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drɪŋk/

• audio (Gotland)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Noun

drink c

1. drink; a (mixed) alcoholic beverage

Declension

Derived terms

See also

• grogg
• sup

References

• drink in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• drink in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• drink in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Yola

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɾɪnk/

Verb

drink

1. to drink
   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 4, page 96:

     Drink a heall to a breede. "Shud with, a voorneen."

     Drink a health to the bride, "Here's to you, my dear."

Noun

drink

1. drink
   • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 98:

     Tibbès an crockès wee drink war ee-felt.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 96