quaff
nounEtymology Uncertain. Suggestions include connection with Old Irish cuäch (“cup, goblet, bowl; cauldron, large vessel; bowl, cup”) (whence Scots quaich, queff). The noun is derived from the verb.
1
The act of quaffing; a deep draught.
quaff
verbUK /kwɒf/ · US /kwɑf/
Etymology Uncertain. Suggestions include connection with Old Irish cuäch (“cup, goblet, bowl; cauldron, large vessel; bowl, cup”) (whence Scots quaich, queff). The noun is derived from the verb.
1
To drink or imbibe with vigour or relish; to drink copiously; to swallow in large draughts.
- I can't believe you quaffed four pints of beer and could still drive!
- Please ye we may contrive this afternoon, / And quaff carouses to our mistress' healthc. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
4 more examples
- They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy […]1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Sometimes the memory of her peaceful life at Florence obtruded itself upon her, and more than that, her charitable occupations when she attended the sick in that city, and whence, as from a rough-hewn chalice containing nectarian drink, she had quaffed happiness.1823, Mary Shelley, Valperga:
- Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
- Even while quaffing the third draught of the Fountain of Youth, they were almost awed by the expression of his mysterious visage.1852, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment:
- Derived terms
- quaffable, quaffingly, unquaffed