wassail

American  

[wos-uhl, -eyl, was-, wo-seyl] / ˈwɒs əl, -eɪl, ˈwæs-, wɒˈseɪl /

noun

• wassails
  plural

1. a salutation wishing health to a person, used in England in early times when presenting a cup of drink or when drinking to the person.

2. a festivity or revel with drinking of healths.

3. liquor for drinking and wishing health to others on festive occasions, especially spiced ale, as on Christmas Eve and Twelfth-night.

4. Archaic. a song sung in wassailing.

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verb (used without object)

• wassails,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wassailed,
  past participle,  past
• wassailing
  present participle

1. to revel with drinking.

verb (used with object)

• wassails,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wassailed,
  past participle,  past
• wassailing
  present participle

1. to drink to the health or success of; toast.

wassail British  

/ ˈwɒseɪl /

noun

1. (formerly) a toast or salutation made to a person at festivities

2. a festivity when much drinking takes place

3. alcoholic drink drunk at such a festivity, esp spiced beer or mulled wine

4. the singing of Christmas carols, going from house to house

5. archaic a drinking song

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verb

1. to drink the health of (a person) at a wassail

2. (intr) to go from house to house singing carols at Christmas

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wassailer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wassails
  plural

Participles

• wassailing
  present
• wassailed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wassail
  simple
• wassails
  simple
• have wassailed
  perfect
• has wassailed
  perfect
• am wassailing
  progressive
• are wassailing
  progressive
• is wassailing
  progressive
• have been wassailing
  perfect progressive
• has been wassailing
  perfect progressive

Past

• wassailed
  simple
• had wassailed
  perfect
• was wassailing
  progressive
• were wassailing
  progressive
• had been wassailing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wassail
  simple
• will have wassailed
  perfect
• will be wassailing
  progressive
• will have been wassailing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of wassail

1175–1225; Middle English was-hail, equivalent to was be ( Old English wæs, variant of wes, imperative of wesan to be; akin to was ) + hail hale ¹, in good health (< Old Norse heill hale); replacing Old English wæs hāl be hale or whole. See whole, heal

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wassail wassails wassailed wassailing

I never had a clear idea of what a wassail was.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 18, 2018

The scent of cinnamon and clove permeated the building, as members brewed traditional wassail for the occasion.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 11, 2017

You spoiled them, and they came to expect your Christmas exertions as a tradition that spared them the effort of providing their own ham and wassail bowl.

From Slate ● Dec. 31, 2014

Also on the program were spirited renditions of a traditional Cornish wassail song; “Star in the East,” a 19th-century American folk hymn; and a harmonically pungent arrangement of John Tavener’s song “The Lamb.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2010

The meats were followed by flaming puddings and bowls of wassail, chestnuts, and apples.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

In January I attend one of Kent’s growing number of wassails, a half-pagan, half-Christian ceremony in which an apple tree is fed a tribute of cider to encourage a good harvest later in the year.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2020

The fight against evil spirits continues the following month in the orchards of southern England, where Apple wassails, or Apple Howling ceremonies, are common.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2014

Thou shalt have possets, wassails fine, Not made of ale, but spicèd wine; To make thy maids and self free mirth, All sitting near the glitt'ring hearth.

From Six Centuries of English Poetry Tennyson to Chaucer by James Baldwin

With revels and with wassails Make grief and care our vassals.

From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen

Thou shalt have possets, wassails fine, Not made of ale, but spiced wine; To make thy maids and self free mirth, All sitting near the glitt'ring hearth.

From A selection from the lyrical poems of Robert Herrick by Francis Turner Palgrave

I wassailed the thing down to its yeasty dregs.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2016

In this very place, perhaps upon this very spot, he feasted and wassailed with his warriors, and drained his horn to the future glories of his name.

From Greifenstein by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

We wassailed deep into that night and out the other side, and we liked our Otto more than ever.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, May 9, 1917 by Various

Class A, 1st, A formal affair … with tennis; A wassailing we will go; Best of the Wurst, New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. ; 3rd, The Rescuers, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 3, 2019

Peter McKintosh’s set has a sort of Vorticist pizazz, and I liked the sweet assemblage of wassailing mice that suggest the passage of the seasons.

From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2017

The British tradition of wassailing in exchange for a bowl of hot mulled cider goes back centuries, as does eggnog.

From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2016

This is orchard wassailing, the far older custom of serenading apple trees in winter to wake the sleepy, scrumpy-producing spirits within.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 5, 2013

Wassail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruits they will bring As you do give them wassailing.

From In The Yule-Log Glow, Book IV by Harrison S. (Harrison Smith) Morris