IMBIBE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does imbibe mean? 

• IMBIBE (verb)
  The verb IMBIBE has 4 senses:

1. take in, also metaphorically

2. take (gas, light or heat) into a solution

3. take in liquids

4. receive into the mind and retain

  Familiarity information: IMBIBE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMBIBE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they imbibe    ... he / she / it imbibes   
Past simple: imbibed   
Past participle: imbibed   
-ing form: imbibing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take in, also metaphorically

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

absorb; draw; imbibe; soak up; sop up; suck; suck up; take in; take up

Context example:

She drew strength from the minister's words

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "imbibe"):

mop; mop up; wipe up (to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop)

blot (dry (ink) with blotting paper)

sponge up (absorb as if with a sponge)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

imbiber (a person who drinks alcoholic beverages (especially to excess))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Take (gas, light or heat) into a solution

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

assimilate; imbibe

Hypernyms (to "imbibe" is one way to...):

absorb (become imbued)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

imbibition ((chemistry) the absorption of a liquid by a solid or gel)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Take in liquids

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

drink; imbibe

Context example:

The children like to drink soda

Hypernyms (to "imbibe" is one way to...):

consume; have; ingest; take; take in (serve oneself to, or consume regularly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "imbibe"):

swill; swill down (drink large quantities of (liquid, especially alcoholic drink))

suck (draw into the mouth by creating a practical vacuum in the mouth)

guggle; gurgle (drink from a flask with a gurgling sound)

sip (drink in sips)

guzzle (drink greedily or as if with great thirst)

lap; lap up; lick (take up with the tongue)

drain the cup; drink up (drink to the last drop)

gulp; quaff; swig (to swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught)

belt down; bolt down; down; drink down; kill; pop; pour down; toss off (drink down entirely)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

imbiber (a person who drinks alcoholic beverages (especially to excess))

imbibing; imbibition (the act of consuming liquids)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Receive into the mind and retain

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

Imbibe ethical principles

Hypernyms (to "imbibe" is one way to...):

absorb; assimilate; ingest; take in (take up mentally)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I am sure you have, somehow or other, imbibed such a notion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits: more harmonious thoughts: what seemed better regulated feelings had become the inmates of my mind.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You must give him your own answer: we cannot expect him to be satisfied with less; and you only can explain to him the grounds of that misconception of your sentiments, which, unfortunately for himself, he certainly has imbibed.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But I apprehend that we were personally fortunate in engaging a servant with a taste for cordials, who swelled our running account for porter at the public-house by such inexplicable items as quartern rum shrub (Mrs. C.); Half-quartern gin and cloves (Mrs. C.); Glass rum and peppermint (Mrs. C.)—the parentheses always referring to Dora, who was supposed, it appeared on explanation, to have imbibed the whole of these refreshments.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The great novelist vibrated between two decanters with the regularity of a pendulum; the famous divine flirted openly with one of the Madame de Staels of the age, who looked daggers at another Corinne, who was amiably satirizing her, after outmaneuvering her in efforts to absorb the profound philosopher, who imbibed tea Johnsonianly and appeared to slumber, the loquacity of the lady rendering speech impossible.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Margaret, the other sister, was a good-humored, well-disposed girl; but as she had already imbibed a good deal of Marianne's romance, without having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

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?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Lady Bertram could think nothing less, and Fanny shared her aunt's security, till she received a few lines from Edmund, written purposely to give her a clearer idea of his brother's situation, and acquaint her with the apprehensions which he and his father had imbibed from the physician with respect to some strong hectic symptoms, which seemed to seize the frame on the departure of the fever.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)