imbibe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
imbibes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
imbibed,
past participle, past
-
imbibing
present participle
-
to consume (liquids) by drinking; drink.
He imbibed great quantities of iced tea.
- Synonyms:
- swallow
-
to absorb or soak up, as water, light, or heat.
Plants imbibe moisture from the soil.
-
to take or receive into the mind, as knowledge, ideas, or the like.
to imbibe a sermon; to imbibe beautiful scenery.
verb (used without object)
-
imbibes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
imbibed,
past participle, past
-
imbibing
present participle
-
to drink, especially alcoholic beverages.
Just a soft drink for me—I don't imbibe.
-
to absorb liquid or moisture.
-
Archaic. to soak or saturate; imbue.
verb
-
to drink (esp alcoholic drinks)
-
literary to take in or assimilate (ideas, facts, etc)
to imbibe the spirit of the Renaissance
-
(tr) to take in as if by drinking
to imbibe fresh air
-
to absorb or cause to absorb liquid or moisture; assimilate or saturate
Synonym Usage
See drink.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
imbibesimple
-
imbibessimple
-
have imbibedperfect
-
has imbibedperfect
-
am imbibingprogressive
-
are imbibingprogressive
-
is imbibingprogressive
-
have been imbibingperfect progressive
-
has been imbibingperfect progressive
Past
-
imbibedsimple
-
had imbibedperfect
-
was imbibingprogressive
-
were imbibingprogressive
-
had been imbibingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of imbibe
1350–1400; < Latin imbibere to drink in, equivalent to im- im- 1 + bibere to drink; replacing Middle English enbiben < Middle French embiber < Latin, as above
Explanation
Imbibe is a fancy word for "drink." If you need to imbibe ten cups of coffee just to get out of the house, you might have a caffeine problem. Although the verb imbibe means to take in liquids of any sort, if you don't specify the liquid, people are likely to infer you mean an alcoholic beverage. You can also use it figuratively. If you have imbibed every detail about every battle of the U.S. Civil War, you must find the subject interesting.
Vocabulary lists containing imbibe
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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:
Listeners, meanwhile, are free to sit back and imbibe the music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Fewer people in the U.S. are drinking alcohol, and when they do imbibe, they drink less than they used to.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
An extremely light drinker, Yamamoto said that even the magnitude of this victory couldn’t drive him to imbibe any of the adult beverages provided to the players.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2024
"One of the staples of elevated dining is never say 'no' to a guest. So if someone doesn't imbibe, we want to be able to 'yes' while not compromising our standards," Patton said.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2023
If only he could imbibe some of that night rest!
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
The nectar isn’t so potent that the plants catch every ant that imbibes; many of the insects are able to shrug off its effects and make it home to deliver the sweet treat.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 29, 2023
In other words, Musk, who imbibes and regurgitates bad memes, has built a machine that is also designed to imbibe and regurgitate bad memes.
From Slate ● Nov. 7, 2023
It imbibes the illusion of omnipotence and wallows in self-adulation.
From Salon ● May 7, 2023
With a Bourdain-like gift for chatting up strangers and a willingness to disregard the gross factor, he imbibes traditional drinks from the familiar to the extreme while exploring the cultures that made the cocktails popular.
From Washington Post ● May 7, 2020
How my mind, opening at this scene, imbibes The moral emanations of the skies, While nought, perhaps, Lorenzo less admires!
From Young's Night Thoughts With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes by Edward Young
In cellars and basements across the city, African-Americans hosted parties where white and black New Yorkers regularly shared the dance floor, imbibed together and sometimes got into fisticuffs that prompted the intervention of neighborhood watchmen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
He used to work with the cousins' fathers: "They were amazing people who loved what they did and have imbibed their children with this altruistic behaviour."
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2025
She was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, from which she imbibed the lesson that a large religious institution could have ugliness in its past, but still do good in individual lives.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2024
There are gigantic sandworms to be mounted and surfed like waves, vials of blue goo to be imbibed for clarifying properties, yet “Dune: Part Two” fixes firmly on the idea of authenticity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
A girl with him smiled, tilted her head back, imbibed, laughed.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
All of which is true but, for a book featuring Franklin and Washington happily imbibing on the cover, it’s a bit of a buzzkill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Perhaps the reason is they really are too scared to go into the city, after imbibing years of lies that New York is a war zone.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2024
Ms. Coroy attends ceremonies without imbibing, she said.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2023
There’s a lot of people that are still suffering from anxiety and mental illness that are still imbibing dangerous conspiracy theories.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2023
Sometimes she neglected to ration her water, imbibing too much in the morning and staring with bitterness at the fountain the rest of the day.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
