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drink.

To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈdɹɪŋk/[ˈd͡ɹ̝ʷɪŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪŋk]/ˈdɹiŋk/[d͡ɹ̝ʷiŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷiŋk]
  1. To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

    ambitransitive
    He drank the water I gave him.
    You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
  2. To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).

    metonymically · transitive
    Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.
  3. To consume alcoholic beverages.

    intransitive
    You've been drinking, haven't you?
    No thanks, I don't drink.
  4. To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.

    transitive
  5. To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.

    transitive
  6. To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially

    archaic · transitive
  7. To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially: To express one's desire for the accomplishment of a toast, sentiment or event, to wish, hope (for), forward (especially as 'to drink the health (of someone)').

    archaic · transitive
  8. To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially: [with to ‘someone or something’]

    archaic · obsolete · transitive
  9. To smoke, as tobacco.

    obsolete · transitive
  10. Used in phrasal verbs: drink down, drink in, drink off, drink out, drink to, drink up.

Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/ˈdɹɪŋk/[ˈd͡ɹ̝ʷɪŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪŋk]/ˈdɹiŋk/[d͡ɹ̝ʷiŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷiŋk]
  1. A beverage.

    countable · uncountable
    What kind of drink would you like? We have soft drinks and hard drinks.
  2. Drinks in general; something to drink.

    uncountable
  3. A type of beverage (usually mixed).

    countable · uncountable
    My favourite drink is the White Russian.
  4. A (served) alcoholic beverage.

    countable · uncountable
    Can I buy you a drink?
  5. The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.

    countable · uncountable
    He was about to take a drink from his root beer.
  6. Alcoholic beverages in general.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A standard drink.

    countable · uncountable
    A drink of wine is about 5 ounces
  8. Any body of water.

    colloquial · countable · uncountable
    If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!
  9. A downpour; a cloudburst; a rainstorm; a deluge; a lot of rain.

    Australia · countable · figuratively · uncountable
  10. Amount.

    countable · informal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *drinkaną Proto-Germanic *drunkiz Proto-West Germanic *drunki Old English drynċ Middle English drink English drink From Middle English drink, drinke (also as drinche, drunch), from Old English drynċ, from Proto-Germanic *drunkiz, *drankiz. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Dronk (“drink”), Cimbrian gatrànkh (“drink”), Dutch drank, dronk (“drink”), German Getränk, trank, Trunk (“drink”), German Low German Drank, Drunk (“drink”), Vilamovian gytrenḱ (“drink”), Danish drik (“drink, beverage”), Icelandic drykkur (“drink, beverage”), Norwegian Bokmål drikk (“drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikk, drykk (“drink, alcohol”), Swedish dryck (“drink”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌺 (draggk), 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌺 (dragk, “drink”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.