Dictionary

bedrink en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English *bedrinken, from Old English bedrincan (“to drink in, drink up, absorb”), from Proto-West Germanic *bidrinkan; conflated with Middle English bidrenchen (“to soak up, steep”) (attested in Middle English bidrenkt (“soaked, drenched”)), from Old English *bedrenċan (“to drench completely”), equivalent to be- + drink and be- + drench. Cognate with Dutch bedrinken (“to drink up, get drunk”), German betrinken (“to get drunk”).

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive, archaic) To drink in; drink up; drink to the fullest
   • [...] not far from Tophana — the place of cannons — and doth there foolishly, selfishly, and sottishly bedrink himself unroyally drunk with bottle after bottle of champagne, [...] 1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish life and character:
   • "Thus the unsteady woman [bedrinks] intoxicates the firm and resolute man." 1889, Solomon Caesar Malan, Original notes on the Book of Proverbs:
2. (archaic, reflexive) to get drunk
   • That "moreover it behooveth to scourge all such heretics as would have it that these herein-afore-mentioned swineherds had bedrunk themselves and did cunningly adduce this tale of witchery to the end that they might escape meet [...]" 1899, University of Virginia, The Virginia spectator:

Forms