Word.ws English Dictionary

drinkle

/ˈdɹɪŋkl̩/

drinkle verb: to drink (an alcoholic beverage); also, to cause (someone) to drink such a beverage; to drench; to drown.

Verb

drinkle (third-person singular simple present drinkles, present participle drinkling, simple past and past participle drinkled)

  1. (transitive) To drink (an alcoholic beverage); also, to cause (someone) to drink such a beverage; to drench; to drown.
    • We built a fire in the huge fireplace, then sat around drinkling bootleg beer and whiskey, compliments of Joe himself, Valley High's greatest athlete.1965, John Treadwell Nichols, The Sterile Cuckoo
  2. (intransitive) To drink an alcoholic beverage; also, to become intoxicated; to get drunk.
    • 'Get this one into bed and it's a royal flush!' His face twinkled, his gums sparkled, his eyes kindled, his brow darkened. I bridled and bristled, nettled and rankled, then drinkled and drankled some more.2009, Claire Kilroy, All Names Have Been Changed
  3. (intransitive) To drown.
    • And the Mercury states that "the heavy rain drenched the field, and most betook themselves to a retreat, but the rats were all drinkled".1900, George Borrow, “Notes to Lavengro, with Corrections, Identifications and Translations”, in Lavengro […], new edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 562

Forms of drinkle

third-person singular presentdrinkles
present participledrinkling
past participledrinkled
pastdrinkled
alternative formdrenkle

Origin of drinkle

From Middle English drinklen, drinkelen, drenklen (“to plunge, drown”), from Old English *drenclian (“to drown”), frequentative form of Old English drenċan (“to give to drink, give drink to, drench, make drunk, ply with drink; soak, saturate; submerge, drown, plunge; sink”), equivalent to drink + -le and drench + -le. Compare dronkle, drunkle.

Words formed from drinkle

Words that rhyme with drinkle

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about drinkle

What does drinkle mean?
Drinkle means to drink (an alcoholic beverage); also, to cause (someone) to drink such a beverage; to drench; to drown.
What part of speech is drinkle?
Drinkle is a verb.
How do you pronounce drinkle?
Drinkle is pronounced /ˈdɹɪŋkl̩/.
What is the past tense of drinkle?
The past tense of drinkle is drinkled.

Words near drinkle in the dictionary

  1. drinking-straw
  2. drinking-straws
  3. drinking-up time
  4. drinking-up times
  5. drinkings
  6. drinkle
  7. drinkless
  8. drinklessness
  9. drinkmaking
  10. drinkologist
  11. drinkologists

Source and license

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