drinker

Agent noun of drink; someone or something that drinks.

Noun

  1. Agent noun of drink; someone or something that drinks.
  2. Someone who drinks alcoholic beverages on a regular basis.
    • a heavy drinker
    • At a single table a couple of Chinese drinkers looked up incuriously. - 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 280:
  3. A device from which animals can drink.
    • a bell drinker
    • a nipple drinker
  4. A pub.
    • Antisocial behaviour? What the hell was that? In my day antisocial meant staying in to watch the footy on Scotsport instead of going down the drinker. - 2011, Tony Black, Gutted, page 88:
  5. A lasiocampid moth of species Euthrix potatoria, having an orange-brown colour.

Origin

From Middle English drinkere, drynkere, from Old English drincere (“drinker”), from Proto-Germanic *drinkārijaz (“drinker”), equivalent to drink + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Drinker (“drinker”), West Frisian drinker (“drinker”), Dutch drinker (“drinker”), German Low German Drinker (“drinker”), German Trinker (“drinker”), Danish drikker (“drinker”), Swedish drickare, drinkare (“drinker”).

Forms

drinkers

Synonyms

alcoholic souse suck-pint boozer local watering hole

Antonyms

teetotaler nondrinker

Derived

B-drinker binge drinker drinker moth milk drinker non-drinker nondrinker social drinker two-fisted drinker water drinker