bedrink

English

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”).

Verb

bedrink (third-person singular simple present bedrinks, present participle bedrinking, simple past bedrank, past participle bedrunk or bedrunken)

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To drink in; drink up; drink to the fullest
   • 1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish life and character:

     [...] 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, [...]

   • 1889, Solomon Caesar Malan, Original notes on the Book of Proverbs:

     "Thus the unsteady woman [bedrinks] intoxicates the firm and resolute man."

2. (reflexive, archaic) to get drunk
   • 1899, University of Virginia, The Virginia spectator:

     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 [...]"