drank

Pluraldranks

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense of drink.

   He drank his coffee black every morning before the commute.

   The travelers drank deeply from the cold mountain stream.

   Note

   Old English dranc lies behind this past tense, which stands alone without an auxiliary: he drank a lot last night. It carries every sense of drink. It can mean drinking alcohol with no object at all, or taking something in through the senses, as in she drank in the view. After have, has or had, standard English switches to drunk.

2. 2
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   A drink, usually an alcoholic one.

   He poured himself a drank after the long shift ended.

   Grab a drank and come sit with us by the fire.

   Similardrink, bevvy

   Note

   A spoken pronunciation turned into spelling, as with the slang name for the drug. The 2005 track "Stay Fly" sets it beside the ordinary word in a single line, warning that a drink left within reach will be finished off. Like drink, it can be counted (a drank) or not (more drank). It belongs firmly to slang: use it for color, never in neutral prose.

3. 3
   verbobsolete

   Past participle of drink. Now nonstandard: standard English uses drunk.

   Tho’ the Barber had drank down this Story with greedy Ears, he was not yet ſatisfied.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “A Dialogue between Mr. Jones and the Barber”

   He'd drank alcohol prior to driving off the road.

   Note

   An older participle that Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) and Jane Austen's Emma (1815) both use: "when he had drank his tea." It survives in informal speech (he'd drank alcohol before driving), but it is obsolete in careful writing. Formal English puts drunk after have, has and had, and keeps drank for the simple past.

4. 4
   nounslanguncountable

   Dextromethorphan, a cough-suppressant drug, especially when taken recreationally for its effects.

   Counselors warned the students about the dangers of taking drank.

   Police suspected the stolen cough syrup was being turned into drank.

   Similarlean, sizzurp

   Note

   Slang built from a pronunciation spelling of drink, the same source as the slang word for a drink. It belongs to casual talk about recreational use. In medical or formal writing, the drug's own name is the one to use. It works as a mass noun (some drank) or a count noun. Despite the spelling, it is unrelated to the past tense of drink, which descends separately from Old English dranc.

Showing meanings only. Show all 4