booze

[booz]

noun

1. any alcoholic beverage; whiskey.

2. a drinking bout or spree.

verb (used without object)

boozed, boozing 

1. to drink alcohol, especially to excess.

   He continued to booze until his health finally gave out.

booze

/ buːz /

noun

1. alcoholic drink

2. a drinking bout or party

verb

1. (usually intr) to drink (alcohol), esp in excess

Other Word Forms

• boozer noun
• boozed adjective
• boozing noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of booze¹

1610–20; respelling of bouse ², reflecting one of its pronunciation variants

Word History and Origins

Origin of booze¹

C13: from Middle Dutch būsen

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. booze it up, to drink heavily and persistently.

Example Sentences

But can pubs - inextricably linked to the sale of booze - entice the younger generation to its premises when the around one-third of under-25s and 20% of all Brits don't drink alcohol?

Read more on BBC

Infidelity also strained the marriage, which, like his boozing and doping, he blames on addiction, “a disease that keeps telling you you don’t have a disease.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The singer had a long history of addiction: “I’d hit rock bottom a few times in my life, but always from booze and drugs,” he writes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Leguizamo eases up on the ferociously funny clowning at which he is so expert to emphasize Nelson’s frantic desperation to avoid having to admit he has failed his family, numbing his anxieties with booze.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Kicking booze meant spending time with what she calls her “shadow self,” facing down her fears and anxieties without a protective barrier.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• alcohol