Word.ws English Dictionary

drink hail

drink hail interjection: the customary old English reply to a drinking pledge or wassail.

Interjection

  1. (obsolete) The customary old English reply to a drinking pledge or wassail.

Origin of drink hail

From Middle English drinc hail, drinchail, drinc-hæil, drincheheil, dringhail, drinkel, drink hail, drinkhail, drynkehaile, drynkeheil, drynk hayl, drynkheil, probably an Old Norse phrase; compare Old Icelandic far heill (“farewell!”), com heill (“welcome!”). Roughly translated to me "commence guzzling".

Questions about drink hail

What does drink hail mean?
Drink hail means the customary old English reply to a drinking pledge or wassail.
What part of speech is drink hail?
Drink hail is an interjection.

Words near drink hail in the dictionary

  1. drink driving
  2. drink from a firehose
  3. drink from the fire hydrant
  4. drink from the furry cup
  5. drink from the same well
  6. drink hail
  7. drink hall
  8. drink in
  9. drink like a fish
  10. drink link
  11. drink links

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drink hail (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.

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