drunken

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹʌŋkən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋkən

Etymology 1

From Middle English drunken, ydronken, idrunken, from Old English druncen, ġedruncen (“drunk; drunken”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanaz (“drunken”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”), equivalent to drink +‎ -en. Cognate with West Frisian dronken (“drunk; drunken”), Dutch dronken (“drunk; drunken”), German betrunken (“drunk; drunken”), Swedish drucken (“drunk; drunken”).

Verb

drunken

1. (archaic, still occasionally in juxtaposition with eaten) past participle of drink

Adjective

drunken (comparative more drunken, superlative most drunken)

1. Drunk, in the state of intoxication after having drunk an alcoholic beverage.
   • (Can we date this quote by Drunken Sailor and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?) Drunken Sailor (traditional sea shanty)

     What shall we do with a drunken sailor? / Put him in the longboat and make him bail her / Early in the morning.

   • 2014 December 23, Dallas S. Paskell, Medieval‎, Author House, →ISBN, page 389:

     I ask now to put faces to those names and remove all doubt that the songs I've heard sung in your honor were not a drunken bard's attempt to make a few extra coins. This mission is dire and the reward shall fit you well. […]

2. (derogatory) Given to habitual excessive use of alcohol.
3. Characterized by or resulting from drunkenness.

   a drunken display of crude exuberance

   • 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 252:

     Surviving pictures of the accident show the two locomotives leaning at drunken angles, still covered with flags and evergreens—a mixture of comedy and tragedy.

4. (obsolete) Saturated with liquid
   1. Applied to various spicy stir-fried dishes in Asian cuisine.

      drunken noodles; drunken duck; drunken fried rice

Synonyms

• drunk; see also Thesaurus:drunk

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dronknen, drunkenen, drunknen, from Old English druncnian (“to drown; get drunk”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanōną (“to get drunk”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanaz (“drunk; intoxicated”). Cognate with Norwegian drukne, drukna, Icelandic drukna.

Verb

drunken (third-person singular simple present drunkens, present participle drunkening, simple past and past participle drunkened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become drunk or drunken; intoxicate
   • 1917, Patience Worth, The Sorry Tale, page 153:

     Yea, upon a stoned couch and drunkened unto death upon the bittered draught of Rome!

   • 1985, Kay Dreyfus, Percy Aldridge Grainger, Farthest North of Humanness: Letters, page 31:

     The dreamy coloring of the land is just too drunkening.

   • 2011, William Peters, Good Morning my Beloved Family, page 31:

     Dogma drunkens the Spirit, and while we indulge in our stupor, it robs us of our innate Spiritually Divine and Creative acuity . . . Love alone provides us with the much needed restorative properties of redemption.

Low German

Etymology

From drinken, cognate to English drunken, Dutch dronken.

Adjective

drunken (comparative drunkener, superlative drunkenst)

1. drunk, drunken

Declension

Synonyms

• duun
• bedrunken
• anduunt
• dick
• drietendick
• besapen
• betüdelt
• vull
• benusselt