imbibe

From Middle English imbiben, from Latin imbibō, from im- + bibō (“to drink”) (whence also beverage), from Proto-Italic *pibō, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃-, whence also potable, potion.

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbaɪb/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪb

imbibe (third-person singular simple present imbibes, present participle imbibing, simple past and past participle imbibed)

1. To drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
   • 1899, John A. Logan, Jr., In Joyful Russia, 2nd edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 185:

     Perhaps in the case of the vodka-drinking peasant it is this weekly parboil which saves his life and postpones the dreadful day when the constant imbibing of unlimited quantities of the deadly liquor must be paid for.

   • 2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press,, →ISBN, page 55:

     Without its sting, the common yellowjacket would be unable to steal ham from our sandwich or imbibe the sweet juice from our peach.

2. (figuratively) To take in; absorb.

   to imbibe knowledge

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC, pages 69–70:

     “Every minute,” continued M. Krempe with warmth, “every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems, and useless names. Good God! in what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that these fancies, which you have so greedily imbibed, are a thousand years old, and as musty as they are ancient? I little expected in this enlightened and scientific age to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. My dear Sir, you must begin your studies entirely anew.”

   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XI, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 144:

     To eradicate that error, already but too deeply imbibed, to subdue and triumph over human infirmity, was indeed difficult, but to Rosilia a derogation from virtue was still more so.

   • 2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico, published 2007, page 219:

     Like the late Dr Falk (d. 1782), Grabianka was a native of Podolia, where Sabbatian influences were strong among local Jews, and he imbibed many of their notions.

   • 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian‎:

     If you’ve been imbibing Craig’s Kelly’s Covid monologues over the summer and wondering why Scott Morrison lets one of his own MPs regularly contradict the official public health advice without rebuke, let me try to answer your question.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To steep; to cause to absorb liquid.

• ingest

• imbiber
• imbibement
• imbibition

• Homophones: imbibent, imbibes

imbibe

1. inflection of imbiber:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

imbibe

1. second-person singular present active imperative of imbibō

imbibe

1. Alternative form of imbiben