Imbibe definition

ĭm-bīb
imbibed imbibes imbibing
See word origin
Frequency:
To receive and absorb into the mind.
verb
7
2
The definition of imbibe is to take in with the senses or the mind, or to consume something, especially alcohol.

When you learn something through listening to it and absorbing the information, this is an example of imbibe.

When you drink alcohol, this is an example of imbibe.

verb
1
0
To drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
verb
1
0
To drink.
verb
1
1
To absorb or take in as if by drinking.
verb
0
0
Advertisement
(obsolete) To permeate; saturate.
verb
0
0
To drink alcoholic beverages.
verb
0
0
To drink (esp. alcoholic liquor)
verb
0
0
To take in with the senses; drink in.
verb
0
0
To absorb (moisture)
verb
0
0
Advertisement
To inhale.
verb
0
0
To drink, esp. alcoholic liquor.
verb
0
0
(figuratively) To take in; as, to imbibe knowledge.
verb
0
0
To take in with the mind.
verb
0
1

Origin of imbibe

  • Middle English embiben to soak up, saturate from Latin imbibere to drink in, imbibe in- in in–2 bibere to drink pō(i)- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Old French imbiber, from Latin prefix im- (“im-”) + bibere (“to drink”), whence also beverage (via Old French).

    From Wiktionary

Imbibe Sentence Examples

  • From this source all soils contain small proportions of sodium in soluble forms, hence the ashes of plants, although they preferably imbibe potassium salts, contain traces and sometimes notable quantities of sodium salts.

  • From their supposed aptitude to imbibe and retain odours, their powder was the basis of various perfumes, such as the celebrated " Poudre de Cypre " of the hairdressers, but their employment in this respect has long since been abandoned.

  • From associates like these Di.irer could imbibe the spirit of Renaissance culture and research; but the external aspects and artistic traditions which surrounded him were purely Gothic, and he had to work out for himself the style and formlanguage fit to express what was in him.

  • Cato ate and drank the same coarse victuals as his slaves, and even had the children suckled by his wife, that they might imbibe a fondness for the family.

  • It is equally a soul or spirit in wine which inspires the intoxicated; the old Egyptian kings avoided wine at table and in libations, because it was the blood of rebels who had fought with the gods, and out of whose rotting bodies grew the vines; to drink the blood was to imbibe the soul of these rebels, and the frenzy of intoxication which followed was held to be possession by their spirits.

More sentences

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near imbibe in the Dictionary