Word.ws English Dictionary

over the river

over the river interjection: said before swallowing an alcoholic drink.

Interjection

  1. (colloquial, dated) Said before swallowing an alcoholic drink.
    • "Over the river!" said Abe.
      Gene drank. As he set his glass down, he tried to push past us.1925, Munsey's Magazine, volume 85, page 460
    • Each of them got half a water-glass of the clear brown liquor. They waited ceremoniously for the captain and then they said: “Over the river,” and tossed it back.1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
    Synonyms:
    down the hatch

Synonyms of over the river

Questions about over the river

What does over the river mean?
Over the river means said before swallowing an alcoholic drink.
What part of speech is over the river?
Over the river is an interjection.

Words near over the river in the dictionary

  1. over the line
  2. over the long haul
  3. over the moon
  4. over the odds
  5. over the rainbow
  6. over the river
  7. over the river and through the woods
  8. over the top
  9. over the transom
  10. over the way
  11. over the wicket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: over the river (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:

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