drink off

English

Verb

drink off (third-person singular simple present drinks off, present participle drinking off, simple past drank off, past participle drunk off)

1. (dated) To drink the entirety of in a short period; originally and especially, in a single gulp.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilled liquor drink thou off; […]

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Hamlet: Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? / Follow my mother.

   • 1639, Henry Glapthorne, The Tragedy of Albertus Wallenstein, Late Duke of Friedland, and General to the Emperor Ferdinand the Second, Thomas Paine, page 66,

     An ’twere the Tun of Heidleberg, I’d drink it / Off with as much ease as a leaguer can / In a grim sutler’s house of thatch.

   • 1656, John Cleveland, "Upon Tom of Chriſt-Church," in The Works of Mr. John Cleveland, Containing his Poems, Orations, Epiſtles, Collected into One Volume, With the Life Of the Author, R. Holt (1687), page 374,

     We in all haſte drink off our Wine, / As if we never ſhould drink more : / So that the Reck’ning after nine / Is larger now than that before.

   • 1758, Sarah Fielding, The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia‎^[1], page 164:

     I then obliged a Man to drink off the Bowl, who immediately expired.

   • 1810, Nicolas Gouin Dufief, Nature Displayed in Her Mode of Teaching Language to Man, T. & G. Palmer, page 341,

     When you are thirsty, you drink off the whole cup at once.

   • 1901, Henry D. Sheldon, Student Life and Customs, D. Appleton and Company, page 32,

     At the beginning of a Kommers the students sing a drinking song, “The foxes under the ban have gone,” after which the crass foxes, bareheaded, must rise and drink off half a Schoppen, while the brand foxes, sitting, each drink an entire Schoppen.

   • 1979, Irving Goldman, The Cubeo Indians of the Northwest Amazon, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 211,

     When each guest has had his two portions of mihí the hosts drink off two portions and then serve one portion to each guest again.

   • 2006, Loren D. Estleman, Nicotine Kiss, Tor/Forge, →ISBN, page 10,

     She was older than any two of them combined and looked as if she could drink off a case with one hand and arm-wrestle all three of them with the other.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:drink

References

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