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wine

[wahyn]
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noun
  1. the fermented juice of grapes, made in many varieties, such as red, white, sweet, dry, still, and sparkling, for use as a beverage, in cooking, in religious rites, etc., and usually having an alcoholic content of 14 percent or less.
  2. a particular variety of such fermented grape juice: port and sherry wines.
  3. the juice, fermented or unfermented, of various other fruits or plants, used as a beverage, sauce, etc.: gooseberry wine; currant wine.
  4. a dark reddish color, as of red wines.
  5. Pharmacology. vinum.
  6. something that invigorates, cheers, or intoxicates like wine.
  7. British.
    1. a social gathering at which wine is the major beverage.
    2. a party, especially one held by university students, for drinking wine.
  8. Obsolete. intoxication due to the drinking of wine.
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adjective
  1. dark red in color.
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verb (used with object), wined, win·ing.
  1. to supply with wine: He wined his cellar with rare vintages.
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verb (used without object), wined, win·ing.
  1. to drink wine.
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Idioms
  1. new wine in old bottles, something new placed in or superimposed on an old or existing form, system, etc. Matt. 9:17.
  2. wine and dine, to entertain lavishly: They wined and dined us in order to get us to sign the new contract.
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Origin of wine

before 900; Middle English (noun), Old English wīn (cognate with Dutch wijn, German Wein, Old Norse vīn, Gothic wein) ≪ Latin vīnum (cognate with Greek oînos)
Related formswine·less, adjectivewin·ish, adjective
Can be confusedwine whine
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

colormauveplumlilaclavenderperiwinklevioletroseflamingmaroonglowingcardinalcrimsoncoralwineboozeliqueurliquoralcoholbubbly

Examples from the Web for wine

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • It is needless to say that Sack is the wine preferred by him.

  • But now with every sip of wine the temptation came stronger and stronger.

    Weighed and Wanting

    George MacDonald

  • Three jacks of the wine of the country, Michel—for the air bites shrewdly.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • "I will neither drink your wine nor sit at your table," returned the other.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • I filled my life to the very brim with pleasure, as one might fill a cup to the very brim with wine.

    De Profundis

    Oscar Wilde

British Dictionary definitions for wine

wine

noun
    1. an alcoholic drink produced by the fermenting of grapes with water and sugarRelated adjectives: vinaceous, vinous
    2. an alcoholic drink produced in this way from other fruits, flowers, etcelderberry wine
    1. a dark red colour, sometimes with a purplish tinge
    2. (as adjective)wine-coloured
  3. anything resembling wine in its intoxicating or invigorating effect
  4. pharmacol obsolete fermented grape juice containing medicaments
  5. Adam's wine British a dialect word for water
  6. new wine in old bottles something new added to or imposed upon an old or established order
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verb
  1. (intr) to drink wine
  2. wine and dine to entertain or be entertained with wine and fine food
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Derived Formswineless, adjective

Word Origin

Old English wīn, from Latin vīnum; related to Greek oinos, of obscure origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for wine

n.

Old English win, from Proto-Germanic *winam (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German win, Old Norse vin, Dutch wijn, German Wein), an early borrowing from Latin vinum "wine," from PIE *win-o-, from an Italic noun related to words for "wine" in Greek (oinos), Armenian, Hittite, and non-Indo-European Georgian and West Semitic (cf. Arabic wain, Hebrew yayin), probably from a lost Mediterranean language word *win-/*woin- "wine." Also from Latin vinum are Old Church Slavonic vino, Lithuanian vynas, Welsh gwin, Old Irish fin. Essentially the same word as vine (q.v.). Wine snob is recorded from 1951.

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v.

"entertain with wine," 1862, from wine (n.). Related: Wined; wining.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper