imbibe
/ɪmˈbaɪb/
imbibe verb: to drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
Verb
imbibe (third-person singular simple present imbibes, present participle imbibing, simple past and past participle imbibed)
- To drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
- Perhaps in the case of the vodka-drinking peasant it is this weekly parboil which saves his life and postpones the dreadful day when the constant imbibing of unlimited quantities of the deadly liquor must be paid for.1899, John A. Logan, Jr., In Joyful Russia, 2nd edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 185
- Without its sting, the common yellowjacket would be unable to steal ham from our sandwich or imbibe the sweet juice from our peach.2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press,, →ISBN, page 55
- To take in; absorb.
- to imbibe knowledge
- “Every minute,” continued M. Krempe with warmth, “every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems, and useless names. Good God! in what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that...1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
- To steep; to cause to absorb liquid.
imbibe meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
imbibe in Tamil
- உள்ளீர்த்துக் கொள், உள்ளீர்த்துக்கொள், உள்வாங்கு, மனத்திற்கொள், உட்கொள்ளுதல்
imbibe in Urdu
- چوسنا, جذب ہونا, جذب کرنا, پینا
imbibe in Bengali
- পান করা, শুষে নেওয়া, গ্রহণ করা
imbibe in Malayalam
- അകത്താക്കുക, ഹൃദിസ്ഥമാക്കുക, നുകരുക, ഉൾക്കൊള്ളുക
More languagesFewer languages
- imbibe in Kannada
- ಕುಡಿ, ಹೀರಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
- imbibe in Sanskrit
- पिबति pibati
Examples of imbibe in a sentence
- To eradicate that error, already but too deeply imbibed, to subdue and triumph over human infirmity, was indeed difficult, but to Rosilia a derogation from virtue was still more so.1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XI, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […]...
- Like the late Dr Falk (d. 1782), Grabianka was a native of Podolia, where Sabbatian influences were strong among local Jews, and he imbibed many of their notions.2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico, published 2007, page 219:
Forms of imbibe
| third-person singular present | imbibes |
|---|---|
| present participle | imbibing |
| past participle | imbibed |
| past | imbibed |
Origin of imbibe
From Middle English imbiben, from Latin imbibō, from im- + bibō (“to drink”) (whence also beverage), from Proto-Italic *pibō, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃-, whence also potable, potion.
Words formed from imbibe
Words that rhyme with imbibe
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about imbibe
- What does imbibe mean?
- Imbibe means to drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
- What is imbibe in Tamil?
- Imbibe in Tamil is உள்ளீர்த்துக் கொள், உள்ளீர்த்துக்கொள், உள்வாங்கு. See Imbibe meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use imbibe in a sentence?
- To eradicate that error, already but too deeply imbibed, to subdue and triumph over human infirmity, was indeed difficult, but to Rosilia a derogation from virtue was still more so.
- What part of speech is imbibe?
- Imbibe is a verb.
- How do you pronounce imbibe?
- Imbibe is pronounced /ɪmˈbaɪb/.
- What is the past tense of imbibe?
- The past tense of imbibe is imbibed.
Words near imbibe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: imbibe (page history and authors); imbibe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); imbibe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Imbibe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); imbibe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); imbibe (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-imbibe.wav.
Cite this entry: “imbibe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imbibe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.