libation

From Latin lībātiō, from lībāre (“to take a little from anything, to taste, to pour out as an offering”)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

libation (countable and uncountable, plural libations)

1. The act of pouring a liquid, most often wine, in sacrifice on the ground, on a ritual object, or on a victim, in honor of some deity.

   Synonyms: tip, tipping

2. The wine or liquid thus poured out.
3. (often humorous) A beverage, especially an alcoholic one.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

   • 1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:

     […] watching you, the waiters, not quite making eye-contact but scanning for any little way to be of service, plus plum-jacketed sommeliers walking around to see if you need a non-buffet libation…

• libate

• libation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia