drink
Americanverb (used without object)
-
drinks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
drunk,
past participle, past
-
drank,
past, past participle
-
drinking
present participle
-
to take water or other liquid into the mouth and swallow it; imbibe.
-
to imbibe alcoholic drinks, especially habitually or to excess; tipple: They won't find jobs until they stop drinking.
He never drinks.
They won't find jobs until they stop drinking.
- Synonyms:
- tope
-
to show one's respect, affection, or hopes with regard to a person, thing, or event by ceremoniously taking a swallow of wine or some other drink (often followed byto ).
They drank to his victory.
-
to be savored or enjoyed by drinking.
a wine that will drink deliciously for many years.
verb (used with object)
-
drinks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
drunk,
past participle, past
-
drank,
past, past participle
-
drinking
present participle
-
to take (a liquid) into the mouth and swallow.
- Synonyms:
- quaff
-
to take in (a liquid) in any manner; absorb.
-
to take in through the senses, especially with eagerness and pleasure (often followed byin ).
He drank in the beauty of the scene.
-
to swallow the contents of (a cup, glass, etc.).
-
to propose or participate in a toast to (a person, thing, or event).
to drink one's health.
- Synonyms:
- toast
noun
-
drinks
plural
-
any liquid that is swallowed to quench thirst, for nourishment, etc.; beverage.
-
excessive indulgence in alcohol.
Drink was his downfall.
-
a swallow or draft of liquid; potion.
She took a drink of water before she spoke.
-
Informal. Usually the drink a large body of water, as a lake, ocean, river, etc..
His teammates threw him in the drink.
verb
-
to swallow (a liquid); imbibe
-
(tr) to take in or soak up (liquid); absorb
this plant drinks a lot of water
-
to pay close attention (to); be fascinated (by)
he drank in the speaker's every word
-
(tr) to bring (oneself into a certain condition) by consuming alcohol
-
to dispose of or ruin by excessive expenditure on alcohol
he drank away his fortune
-
(intr) to consume alcohol, esp to excess
-
to drink (a toast) in celebration, honour, or hope (of)
-
to be able to drink more intoxicating beverage than someone
-
to salute or celebrate with a toast
-
informal to drink alone
noun
-
liquid suitable for drinking; any beverage
-
alcohol or its habitual or excessive consumption
-
a portion of liquid for drinking; draught
-
informal the sea
Usage
As with many verbs of the pattern sing, sang, sung and ring, rang, rung, there is some confusion about the forms for the past tense and past participle of drink. The historical reason for this confusion is that originally verbs of this class in Old English had a past-tense singular form in a but a past-tense plural form in u. Generally the form in a has leveled out to become the standard past-tense form: We drank our coffee. However, the past-tense form in u, though considered nonstandard, occurs often in speech: We drunk our coffee. The standard and most frequent form of the past participle of drink in both speech and writing is drunk : Who has drunk all the milk? However, perhaps because of the association of drunk with intoxication, drank is widely used as a past participle in speech by educated persons and must be considered an alternate standard form: The tourists had drank their fill of the scenery.
Commonly Confused
See drunk ( def. ).
Synonym Usage
Drink, imbibe, sip refer to swallowing liquids. Drink is the general word: to drink coffee. Imbibe is formal in reference to actual drinking; it is used more often in the sense to absorb: to imbibe culture. Sip implies drinking little by little: to sip a cup of broth.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
drinksimple
-
drinkssimple
-
have drankperfect
-
have drunkperfect
-
has drankperfect
-
has drunkperfect
-
am drinkingprogressive
-
are drinkingprogressive
-
is drinkingprogressive
-
have been drinkingperfect progressive
-
has been drinkingperfect progressive
Past
-
dranksimple
-
drunksimple
-
had drankperfect
-
had drunkperfect
-
was drinkingprogressive
-
were drinkingprogressive
-
had been drinkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of drink
First recorded before 900; Middle English drinken, Old English drincan; cognate with Dutch drinken, German trinken, Gothic drinkan, Old Norse drekka
Explanation
To drink is to sip, slurp, or gulp a liquid. On extremely hot days, it's important to drink plenty of water. When you ingest any liquid, you drink it, although the verb drink is very often used to refer specifically to the sipping and swallowing of alcoholic beverages. If a bartender asks, "Do you drink?" she probably means "Do you drink alcohol?" A drink, likewise, can mean any beverage — tea, water, or lemonade — or it can mean an alcoholic one. The Old English root, drincan means both "to drink" and "to engulf."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Three combo meals and an additional drink ran my group about $50.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
A familiar example is the layer of droplets that appears on the outside of a cold drink.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
A father has been reprimanded by police after leaving his son on Japan's highest mountain for several hours with just a soft drink and snack, local media report.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The sole decrease in core sales was at food and drink retailers, a segment led by supermarkets and other grocery stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The doctor examined him, and said that Karli should be kept warm at all costs, and that the more water we could get him to drink the better.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
She sells bottled water, soft drinks, bread, milk and other foodstuffs.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Customers at the first L.A. outpost of coffee chain Blank Street appreciate the shop’s signature drinks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The budget carrier has stopped charging for soft drinks, juice and water.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Seated at a banquette table in the back of the restaurant, the pair ordered two entrees, drinks, and appetizers, totaling $371.55, and at some point during the meal, Eatherly began livestreaming.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Pong and Somkit walked past expensive-looking restaurants, where diners sipped drinks under an emerald-green glow.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
He made it himself, she tells BBC Global Women, but "it tasted bad… so I drank about half".
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
There have always been people who drank sparingly or didn’t drink at all.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
She ate and drank what would be expected of someone exerting herself to the nth degree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Saliva also helped restore normal acidity after participants drank soda or sparkling water.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
Rowdy always did figure that anything I ate or drank was plenty good enough for him.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
He said the point of Medoc isn’t to get drunk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
He said there "were two cups of tea" in the house that had hardly been drunk, giving the impression "that she'd invited somebody in".
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Haddad, in his 60s, said he and his daughter had drunk six litres of water between them in a single day.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
“As explained in Superman, the same way she gets drunk — she goes to a planet with a red sun,” Gunn wrote on Threads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
Children, who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of iodine 131, had drunk the cows’ milk.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
The taps installed under a government drinking water scheme had been dry for two years, she said, leaving most of the village's 1,000 residents dependent on a handful of handpumps.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Coffee is consumed around the world every day, and earlier research has associated coffee drinking with a reduced risk of conditions including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Westminster City Council insisted it wasn’t seeking to ban pubgoers from drinking while standing up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Research has found the construction of roads can fragment habitats and increase erosion and sediment pollution in drinking water, among other potentially harmful outcomes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Those are Viking drinking horns. They’re made from real horns and they’re hundreds of years old. They’re from Valhalla.”
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
