drink

/ˈdɹɪŋk/

drink verb: to consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

Image: Kristiaan from Haarlem, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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)

(ambitransitive) 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.
Synonyms:

gulp, imbibe, quaff, sip
(metonymically, transitive) To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).
- Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.
(intransitive) To consume alcoholic beverages.
- You've been drinking, haven't you?
- No thanks, I don't drink.
Synonyms:

drink alcohol, booze, hit the bottle, hit the sauce
(transitive) To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.
- Let the purple violets drink the stream.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
(transitive) To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.
- My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance.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...
- to drink the cooler air1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
(archaic, transitive) To toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially
- Drink to lofty hopes that cool —
  Visions of a perfect State : Drink we, last, the public fool,
  Frantic love and frantic hate.1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Vision of Sin”, in The Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1884, →OCLC, part iv, page 131
(archaic, transitive) 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)').
- At the same time were great Acclamations & they drunk Damnation to Dʳ. Sacheverell, Mʳ Tilly, and all the Dʳˢ friends.1710, Thomas Hearne, Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne
- I ought not to have neglected a request of one of my correspondents so long as I have; but I dare say I have given him time to add practice to profession. He sent me some time ago a bottle or two of excellent wine to drink the health of a gentleman had by the penny post advertised him of an...1712 December 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “THURSDAY, December 19, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 433; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […]...
(archaic, obsolete, transitive) [with to ‘someone or something’]
- Had our great Pall ace the capacity
  To Campe this hoſt, we all would ſup together,
  And drinke Carowſes to the next dayes Fate
  Which promiſes Royall perill, Trumpetters
  With brazen dinne blaſt you the Cittics eare,
  Make mingle with our ratling Tabourines,
  That heauen and earth may ſtrike their...c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
(obsolete, transitive) To smoke, as tobacco.
- And some men now live ninety yeeres and past,
  Who never dranke tobacco first nor last.1630, Taylor, John ("The Water Poet", 1578–1653), A Proclomation or approbation from the King of execration, to euery nation, for Tobaccoes propogration
Used in phrasal verbs: drink down, drink in, drink off, drink out, drink to, drink up.

Noun

drink (countable and uncountable, plural drinks)

A beverage.
- What kind of drink would you like? We have soft drinks and hard drinks.
Synonyms:

beverage
(uncountable) Drinks in general; something to drink.
- For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 25:35
- These sources do not, however, state why the drink is called lambswool. The name comes from the way the apples are roasted until they split open, and their pulp froths over the skin; this is used to float on top of the bowl of drink.2024 September 6, Ceri Sullivan, “Shakespeare’s Will, Lambswool, and Puck’s Joke”, in Notes and Queries, volume 71, number 4, Oxford University Press, →DOI, page 406
A type of beverage (usually mixed).
- My favourite drink is the White Russian.
Synonyms:

beverage
A (served) alcoholic beverage.
- Can I buy you a drink?
The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.
- He was about to take a drink from his root beer.
Synonyms:

gulp, sip, swig
Alcoholic beverages in general.
- 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.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court
- By the late twenties father has died of drink and his wife is left to raise their two sons.1979 February 10, Michael Bronski, “An American Dream”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 11
Synonyms:

alcoholic beverage
A standard drink.
- A drink of wine is about 5 ounces
- And when (SUBJECT) was 55, would you say (he/she) drank more than, less than, or about 2 to 3 drinks a day?1963, Vital and Health Statistics: Programs and collection procedures, page 125
(colloquial) Any body of water.
- If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!
- 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...1996, John French+, A Drop in the Ocean: Dramatic Accounts of Aircrew Saved From the Sea, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 99
(Australia, figuratively) A downpour; a cloudburst; a rainstorm; a deluge; a lot of rain.
- 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...2023 April 13, 07:56 am (UTC+10/AEST), in News Breakfast, season 2023, episode 74, spoken by Nate Byrne, Melbourne, Australia: ABC News
(informal) Amount.
- He [a sea-serpent] was giant, massive. A huge drink of man-eater. But even now, you know, I could take him.2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube

drink meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

drink in Hindi

consume liquid through the mouth: पीना pīnā, सोखना sokhnā
consume alcoholic beverages: शराब पीना śarāb pīnā
served beverage: पेय pey

drink in Tamil

consume liquid through the mouth: குடி kuṭi
consume alcoholic beverages: குடி kuṭi

drink in Marathi

consume liquid through the mouth: पिणे piṇe, पान, पीना pīnā
consume alcoholic beverages: मदिरा वा दारू पिणे madirā vā dārū piṇe, अपेयपान apeypān
action of drinking — see also drinking: पिणे piṇe, पान pān, पिण्याची क्रिया piṇyācī kriyā
alcoholic beverages in general — see also booze: अपेयपेय apeypey, दारू dārū, मदिरा madirā

drink in Urdu

consume liquid through the mouth: پِینا pīnā
served beverage: مشروب mašrūb

More languagesFewer languages

drink in Bengali: খাওয়া khaōẇa, পিয়া piẏa
drink in Telugu: తాగు tāgu, పానీయం pānīyaṁ
drink in Malayalam: കുടിയ്ക്കുക kuṭiykkuka, പാനീയം pānīyaṁ, മദ്യപിക്കുക madyapikkuka
drink in Kannada: ಕುಡಿಯು kuḍiyu
drink in Punjabi: پینا pīṇā, ਪੀਣਾ pīṇā
drink in Gujarati: પીવું pīvũ
drink in Odia: ପିଇବା piibā
drink in Sanskrit: पिबति pibati
drink in Sinhala: බොන්න bonna
drink in Assamese: খা kha
drink in Nepali: खानु khānu
drink in Pashto: شومل šumə́l, شومول šumawə́l
drink in Tagalog: inom, uminom, inumin, tagay
drink in Arabic: شَرِبَ šariba, شرب širib, شِرِب širib, شْرب šrab
drink in Malay: minum, minuman
drink in Indonesian: minum, minum-minum, minuman, minuman keras
drink in Persian: نوشِیدَن nōšīdan, آشَامِیدَن āšāmīdan, نوشیدَن nušidan, آشامیدَن âšâmidan
drink in Thai: ดื่ม dʉ̀ʉm, เครื่องดื่ม krʉ̂ʉang-dʉ̀ʉm
drink in Vietnamese: uống, uống rượu, uống say, nhậu
drink in Myanmar: သောက် sauk, ယမကာ ya.ma.ka
Sindhi: پيئڻ peṇ
Kashmiri: چۆن con

Examples of drink in a sentence

Everyone who is drinking is drinking, but not everyone who is drinking is drinking.
[…] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in bliſſe: / There drinks the Nectar with Ambroſia mixt […]1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn...
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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
The vanilla latte he is now drinking is giving him disturbing flutters of a major conga line in his stomach2020, Patty Fischer, The Wind Whistles Wicked, Page Publishing Incorporated:
I drink to the general joy of the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...

All 40 example sentences with drink

Synonyms of drink

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of drink

Forms of drink

Verb
third-person singular present	drinks
present participle	drinking
past	drank
past Southern US	drunk
past participle	drunk
past participle	drinken
past participle	dranken
alternative form	dhrink
alternative form	drank
alternative deliberate misspelling	dink
alternative pronunciation-spelling	thrink
past (nonstandard)	drinked
past participle (archaic)	drunken
past participle (dialectal)	drank
past participle (nonstandard, obsolete, archaic)	drinked
alternative form (obsolete)	drinck
alternative form (obsolete)	drinke
Noun
plural	drinks

Past tense of drink: drank or drunk

Plural of drink: drinks

Origin of drink

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...

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”).

Words formed from drink

Phrases with drink

83 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with drink

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about drink

What does drink mean?: Drink means to consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
What is drink in Hindi?: Drink in Hindi is पीना (pīnā), सोखना (sokhnā), शराब पीना (śarāb pīnā). See Drink meaning in Hindi.
How do you use drink in a sentence?: Everyone who is drinking is drinking, but not everyone who is drinking is drinking.
What part of speech is drink?: Drink can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce drink?: Drink is pronounced /ˈdɹɪŋk/.
What is the past tense of drink?: The past tense of drink is drank.

Words near drink in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: drink (page history and authors); پینا (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-drink.wav.

Cite this entry: “drink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.