drink
/ˈdɹɪŋk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.90 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.
Transitive verb
verb
To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially
Archaic; Transitive verb
verb
To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially:
Archaic; Transitive verb
verb
To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially:
Archaic; Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "He drank the water I gave him."
- "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."
- "[…] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in bliſſe: / There drinks the Nectar with Ambroſia mixt […]"
- "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."
- "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."
- "The vanilla latte he is now drinking is giving him disturbing flutters of a major conga line in his stomach"
Etymology
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”). Cognates include German trinken, Norwegian Bokmål drikke, and Italian trincare. Cognates Cognate with Yola drink (“to drink”), North Frisian drank, drainke, drink, drinke (“to drink”), West Frisian drinke (“to drink”), Alemannic German trénge, trenhu, trinche, tringhien, trinke (“to drink”), Bavarian dringa, trinckn, trinkhn, trinkn (“to drink”), Cimbrian trinkan, trinkhan (“to drink”), Dutch and Low German drinken (“to drink”), German and Mòcheno trinken (“to drink”), Luxembourgish drénken (“to drink”), Yiddish טרינקען (trinken, “to drink”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drikke (“to drink”), Elfdalian drikka (“to drink”), Faroese and Icelandic drekka (“to drink”), Jutish drenk (“to drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikka, drikke (“to drink”), Swedish dricka (“to drink”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌺𐌰𐌽 (drigkan, “to drink”), Vandalic drincan (“to drink”), French trinquer (“to booze, drink alcohol”), Italian trincare (“to knock back (a drink)”), Spanish trincar (“to get drunk”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
drinks (present, singular)
drinking (participle, present)
drank (past)
drunk (Southern US, past)
drinked (nonstandard, past)
drunk (participle, past)
drunken (archaic, participle)
drank (dialectal, participle)
drinked (archaic, nonstandard)
drinken (participle, past)
dranken (participle, past)
dhrink (alternative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
gulp
imbibe
quaff
sip
see Thesaurus:drink
drink alcohol
booze
hit the bottle
hit the sauce
drink
hydrate
wet one's whistle