drunk

From Middle English drunke, drunken, ydrunke, ydrunken, from Old English druncen, ġedruncen (“drunk”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanaz, *gadrunkanaz (“drunk; drunken”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian dronken, West Frisian dronken, Dutch dronken, gedronken, German Low German drunken, bedrunken, German getrunken, betrunken, Swedish drucken, Icelandic drukkinn.

• enPR: drŭngk, IPA^(key): /dɹʌŋk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

drunk (comparative drunker, superlative drunkest)

1. Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 557:

     So I took a great dry gourd and, cutting open the head, scooped out the inside and cleaned it; after which I gathered grapes from a vine which grew hard by and squeezed them into the gourd, till it was full of the juice. Then I stopped up the mouth and set in the sun, where I left it for some days, until it became strong wine; and every day I used to drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues with that from froward and obstinate fiend; and as often as I drank myself drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart.

2. Habitually or frequently in a state of intoxication.
3. (usually followed by with or on) Elated or emboldened.

   Drunk with power he immediately ordered a management reshuffle.

   • Macaulay

     drunk with recent prosperity

4. Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid.
   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxxii. 42:

     I will make mine arrows drunk with blood.

• (intoxicated from alcohol): See Thesaurus:drunk
• (habitually of frequently intoxicated from alcohol): boozy, sottish
• (saturated with moisture): See Thesaurus:wet

drunk (plural drunks)

1. One who is intoxicated with alcohol.
2. A habitual drinker, especially one who is frequently intoxicated.
   • 1971, William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead, page 10:

     Another drunk is sleeping in dangerous proximity to a brush fire.

3. A drinking-bout; a period of drunkenness.
   • 1858, "A Scarcity of Jurors—Cangemi's Third Trial," New York Times, 8 Jun., p. 4:

     Gen. G. had been on a long drunk from July last until Christmas.

4. A drunken state.
   • 2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury 2007, p. 10:

     Here – help yourself to another drop there, Redmond! By the time we've got a good drunk on us there'll be more crack in this valley than the night I pissed on the electric fence!

• (habitual drinker): alcoholic, drunkard, pisshead, piss artist, sot; see also Thesaurus:drunkard

• cheap drunk
• dry drunk
• expensive drunk
• good drunk

drunk

1. past participle of drink
2. (Southern US) simple past tense of drink

• Knurd, knurd