imbibe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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)
-
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
Guests can order and imbibe drinks while seated in chairs half-immersed in the pool or hot tub — with a view of the sea.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 15, 2024
“The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthen them—Harry, that sword’s impregnated with basilisk venom!”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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
Spirit of wine imbibes alkaline air as readily as water, and seems to be as inflammable afterwards as before.
From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Priestley, Joseph
Perhaps the former hadn’t imbibed that classic piece of work advice: Dress for the job you want.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“It’s like she had already imbibed the spirit of Chisholm, and that was a really remarkable moment for all of us. Everyone left the read and we couldn’t speak. It was jaw-dropping.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
And while Museveni imbibed Marxism and as a college student sought to verify Frantz Fanon’s theory of violence, Kainerugaba has not outlined his political vision.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2023
After high school, he left for college at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he imbibed American culture, joined a fraternity and ultimately got serious about making music.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits: more harmonious thoughts: what seemed better regulated feelings had become the inmates of my mind.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
But as Americans consume less alcohol than ever, there are still ways to appreciate this ritual without actually imbibing.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
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
Suzuki exudes the fragility and buoyancy of adolescence, playing Fuki as someone constantly imbibing the world, rarely revealing what she’s doing with that stimulus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Floating around in WALL-E pods imbibing our own bespoke distractions like force-fed ducks is a far cry from the exciting future our tech advancements can promise.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2024
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.
