drench
/dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.37 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A dose or draught of liquid medicine (especially one causing sleepiness) taken by a person; specifically, a (large) dose, or one forced or poured down the throat.
Archaic
Example Sentences
- "[T]hey need not carry ſuch an unvvorthy ſuſpicion over the Preachers of Gods vvord, as to tutor their unſoundneſſe vvith the Abcie of a Liturgy, or to diet their ignorance, and vvant of care, vvith the limited draught of a Mattin, and even ſong drench."
- "Let ſuch bethink them, if the ſleepy drench / Of that forgetful Lake benumme not ſtill, / That in our proper motion we aſcend / Up to our native ſeat: deſcent and fall / To us is adverſe."
- "Corpulence is a beauty: girls are fattened to a vast bulk by drenches of curds and cream thickened with flour, and are duly disciplined when they refuse."
- "Guido heard all, swore the befitting oaths, / Shook off the relics of his poison-drench, / Got horse, was fairly started in pursuit […]"
- "He [the horse-doctor] made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said a dipperful of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with turpentine and axle-grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of men in twenty-four hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me forget they were on the premises. […] I took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other half."
- "O my ſvveet Harry ſaies ſhe! hovv manie haſt thou kild to day? Giue my roane horſe a drench (ſayes hee) and aunſvveres ſome foureteene, an houre after: a trifle, a trifle."
Etymology
From Middle English drench, drenche (“beverage, drink; cup of drink, specifically a poisoned drink; medicinal potion, specifically an emetic (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English drenċ (“drink; draft, potion; dose (of medicine, poison, etc.)”), from Proto-West Germanic *dranki, from Proto-Germanic *drankiz (“drink; potion; dose”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw, pull; to gulp; to sip”). Doublet of drink (noun). Cognates * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌺 (draggk), 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌺 (dragk, “beverage, drink”) * Old Dutch *dranc, (Middle Dutch dranc, modern Dutch drank (“beverage, drink”)) * Old High German tranc, tranch (Middle High German tranc, modern German Trank (“drink; potion”)) * Old Saxon dranc
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *dʰrenǵ-, drench, drenċ, *dranki, *drankiz, drenchen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
- British English: /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
drenches (plural)
drenches (present, singular)
drenching (participle, present)
drenched (participle, past)
drenched (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
drenched (first person, past)
drencht (archaic, first person)
drenchest (archaic, present)
drenched (past, second person)
drenchedst (archaic, past)
Derived Forms
endrench
indrench