English
Verb
drink off
- To drink the entirety of in a short period; originally and especially, in a single gulp.
- 1597, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1,
- Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilled liquor drink thou off; […]
- 1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2,
- 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, 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 0252007700, 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 0765312239, 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 Wikisaurus:drink
References
Newsgroup alt.usage.english