drench

[ drench ]
See synonyms for: drenchdrencheddrenchingdrencher on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)
  1. to wet thoroughly; soak.

  2. to saturate by immersion in a liquid; steep.

  1. to cover or fill completely; bathe: trees drenched with sunlight.

  2. Veterinary Medicine. to administer a draft of medicine to (an animal), especially by force: to drench a horse.

  3. Archaic. to cause to drink.

noun
  1. the act of drenching.

  2. something that drenches: a drench of rain.

  1. a preparation for drenching or steeping.

  2. a solution, especially one of fermenting bran, for drenching hides or skins.

  3. a large drink or draft.

  4. a draft of medicine, especially one administered to an animal by force.

  5. Horticulture. a mixture of pesticide and water applied to the soil surrounding a plant.

Origin of drench

1
First recorded before 900; Middle English drenchen,Old English drencan, causative of drincan “to drink” (see drink); cognate with Dutch drenken,German tränken “to water, give to drink”

synonym study For drench

1. See wet.

Other words from drench

  • drencher, noun
  • drench·ing·ly, adverb
  • un·drenched, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use drench in a sentence

  • The summits of the higher ones were constantly swept by the flakes of foam, and promised nothing but an inhospitable drenching.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
  • One of the committee rode into Savannah, through a drenching rain, to report to General Grover.

    The Boys of '61 | Charles Carleton Coffin.
  • By day, we lay and slept in the drenching heather; by night, incessantly clambered upon breakneck hills and among rude crags.

British Dictionary definitions for drench

drench

/ (drɛntʃ) /


verb(tr)
  1. to make completely wet; soak

  2. to give liquid medicine to (an animal), esp by force

noun
  1. the act or an instance of drenching

  2. a dose of liquid medicine given to an animal

Origin of drench

1
Old English drencan to cause to drink; related to Old High German trenken

Derived forms of drench

  • drencher, noun
  • drenching, noun, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012