drench
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɛntʃ
Forms: form: drenches
Etymology: From Middle English drench, drenche (“beverage, drink; cup of drink, specifically a poisoned drink; medicinal potion, specifically an emetic (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English drenċ (“drink; draft, potion; dose (of medicine, poison, etc.)”), from Proto-West Germanic *dranki, from Proto-Germanic *drankiz (“drink; potion; dose”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw, pull; to gulp; to sip”). Doublet of drink (noun).
Cognates
* Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌺 (draggk), 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌺 (dragk, “beverage, drink”)
* Old Dutch *dranc, (Middle Dutch dranc, modern Dutch drank (“beverage, drink”))
* Old High German tranc, tranch (Middle High German tranc, modern German Trank (“drink; potion”))
* Old Saxon dranc
Senses: examples: text: [T]hey need not carry ſuch an unvvorthy ſuſpicion over the Preachers of Gods vvord, as to tutor their unſoundneſſe vvith the Abcie of a Liturgy, or to diet their ignorance, and vvant of care, vvith the limited draught of a Mattin, and even ſong drench.
ref: 1641, [John Milton], Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus, London: […] [Richard Oulton and Gregory Dexter] for Thomas Vnderhill, […], →OCLC, page 20:
text: Let ſuch bethink them, if the ſleepy drench / Of that forgetful Lake benumme not ſtill, / That in our proper motion we aſcend / Up to our native ſeat: deſcent and fall / To us is adverſe.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, 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, lines 73–77:
text: Corpulence is a beauty: girls are fattened to a vast bulk by drenches of curds and cream thickened with flour, and are duly disciplined when they refuse.
ref: 1860, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “We Return to Unyanyembe”, in The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration […], volume II, London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, →OCLC, page 182:
text: Guido heard all, swore the befitting oaths, / Shook off the relics of his poison-drench, / Got horse, was fairly started in pursuit […]
ref: 1868, Robert Browning, “II. Half-Rome.”, in The Ring and the Book. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 124, lines 952–954:
text: He [the horse-doctor] made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said a dipperful of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with turpentine and axle-grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of men in twenty-four hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me forget they were on the premises. […] I took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other half.
ref: 1899 October, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter III, in Christian Science […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published February 1907, →OCLC, book I, page 28:
glosses: A dose or draught of liquid medicine (especially one causing sleepiness) taken by a person; specifically, a (large) dose, or one forced or poured down the throat.
examples: text: O my ſvveet Harry ſaies ſhe! hovv manie haſt thou kild to day? Giue my roane horſe a drench (ſayes hee) and aunſvveres ſome foureteene, an houre after: a trifle, a trifle.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], signature D3, recto:
text: It [siler] ſtaieth the gurrie or running out of the belly in foure-footed beaſts, vvhether it bee given ſtamped by vvay of a drench and ſo injected, or chevved drie among their meat vvith ſalt.
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XX.] Of the Serpentine Cucumber, Called otherwise the Wandering Cucumber: Also of the Garden Cucumbers, Melons or Pompions.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 41:
text: A Drench of VVine has vvith ſucceſs been us'd; / And through a Horn, the gen'rous Juice infus'd: / VVhich timely taken op'd his cloſing Javvs; / But, if too late, the Patient's [a horse's] death did cauſe.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 119:
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: A dose or draught of liquid medicine administered to an animal.
Derived terms: horse-drench