Word.ws English Dictionary

wassail

UK/ˈwɒseɪl//ˈwɑseɪl/

wassail noun: a toast to health, usually on a festive occasion.

wassail: a toast to health, usually on a festive occasion
Image: Glyn Baker, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wassail (countable and uncountable, plural wassails)

  1. A toast to health, usually on a festive occasion.
  2. The beverage served during a wassail, especially one made of ale or wine flavoured with spices, sugar, roasted apples, etc.
    • Add ſugar, nutmeg and ginger, / VVith ſtore of ale too; / And thus ye muſt doe / To make the vvaſſaile a ſvvinger.1648, Robert Herrick, “Twelfe Night, or King and Queene”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas]...
  3. Revelry.
    • In merry wassail he […] peals his loud song.1813, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in Rokeby; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […]...
    • The victors abandoned themselves to feasting and wassail.1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC
  4. A festive or drinking song or glee.
    • Have you done your wassail? 'Tis a handsome, drowsy ditty, I'll assure you.1606, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Woman-Hater”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the...

Verb

wassail (third-person singular simple present wassails, present participle wassailing, simple past and past participle wassailed)

  1. (transitive) To toast, to drink to the health of another.
    • The next morning he much regretted the gusto with which he had wassailed the night before.
  2. (intransitive) To drink wassail.
  3. To go from house to house at Christmastime, singing carols.
    • Schoolchildren around the globe have gleefully sung Torches at Christmastime for half a century. Many of those in Birmingham have wassailed the carol at the front door of a cosy Victorian house in Moseley, unaware that behind that front door lives its composer.2002 February 21, Christopher Morley, “Culture: Children carry a torch for carol king; John Joubert will be 75 next month”, in The Birmingham Post
    • During the Christmas season, carolers traveled from house to house, bringing good wishes and carrying an empty bowl. The master of the house being wassailed was expected to fill the bowl with hot, spicy ale.2006, Ronald M. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols: The Stories Behind Twenty-Five Yuletide Favorites, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., published 2006, →ISBN, page 81
    Synonyms:
    carol

wassail meaning in Vietnamese

wassail in Vietnamese

beverage served during a wassail
rượu chúc mừng

Examples of wassail in a sentence

  • A blinding light against a garish blue sky made vision difficult, thanks to the previous night's wassail.1980, Ian Chappell, Chappelli has the Last Laugh, page 39:
  • "I wish someone would come to my house and wassail!" Jessica P. of Howland said.2010 December 26, Burton Cole, “Holiday mysteries to roast in your wassail”, in Tribune Chronicle:

Synonyms of wassail

Forms of wassail

Noun
pluralwassails
alternative formwasseil
Verb
third-person singular presentwassails
present participlewassailing
past participlewassailed
pastwassailed

Origin of wassail

From Middle English wassail, from Old Norse ves heill (“be healthy!”), from the imperative of vesa (“to be”) + heill (“healthy”). The earliest documented use of the term is from the first part of the 12th century CE, in Geoffroy of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (see page's citations).

Words formed from wassail

Questions about wassail

What does wassail mean?
Wassail means a toast to health, usually on a festive occasion.
What is wassail in Vietnamese?
Wassail in Vietnamese is rượu chúc mừng. See Wassail meaning in Vietnamese.
How do you use wassail in a sentence?
A blinding light against a garish blue sky made vision difficult, thanks to the previous night's wassail.
What part of speech is wassail?
Wassail can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce wassail?
Wassail is pronounced /ˈwɑseɪl/ (US).
What is the plural of wassail?
The plural of wassail is wassails.

Words near wassail in the dictionary

  1. waspwaisted
  2. waspy
  3. Wasrael
  4. wass
  5. wassa
  6. wassail
  7. wassail bowl
  8. wassailed
  9. wassailer
  10. wassailers
  11. wassailing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wassail (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wassail.ogg.

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