English
guzzle
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɡʌzəl/
Verb

guzzle (guzzles, present participle guzzling; past and past participle guzzled)

  1. To drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto.
    • 1720, John Gay, “Friday; or, the Dirge” in Poems on Several Occasions, Google Books ↗
      No more her care shall fill the hollow tray, / To fat the guzzling hogs with floods of whey.
    • 1971, Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley, “Oompa Loompa, Doompa-Dee-Do”, from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
      What do you get when you guzzle down sweets, / Eating as much as an elephant eats?
    • 2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football
      It is Boxing Day in a football ground, and all we can do is sprawl over the plastic, hurling instructions and vague encouragement. The seat is an extension of the sofa, the match another Pick of the Day in the Radio Times. Some are wearing Santa hats, some have been drinking only six or seven hours after last stopping, guzzling away, topping up their levels to reach pie-eyed delirium.
  2. (intransitive, dated) To consume alcoholic beverages, especially frequently or habitually.
    • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes, Google Books ↗
      A comparison more properly bestowed on those that came to guzzle in his wine cellar.
    • 1684, Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse, Google Books ↗
      Well-seasoned bowls the gossip's spirits raise, Who, while she guzzles, chats the doctor's praise.
    • 1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians, Google Books ↗
      Every theatre had it's footman's gallery: […] they guzzled, devoured, debauched, cheated, played cards, bullied visitors for vails: […]
  3. (by extension) To consume anything quickly, greedily, or to excess, as if with insatiable thirst.
    This car just guzzles petrol.
    • 2004, Mike Rigby, quoted in The Freefoam Roofline Report,
      China continues full steam ahead and the Americans continue to guzzle fuel, while supply becomes restricted.
Synonyms Translations Translations
  • German: saufen
  • Russian: пья́нствовать
Translations Noun

guzzle (plural guzzles)

  1. (dated, uncountable) Drink; intoxicating liquor.
    Where squander'd away the tiresome minutes of your evening leisure over seal'd Winchesters of threepenny guzzle! — Tom Brown
  2. (dated) A drinking bout; a debauch.
  3. (dated) An insatiable thing or person.
  4. (obsolete, British, provincial) A drain or ditch; a gutter; sometimes, a small stream. Also called guzzen.
    • 1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie Google Books ↗
      Means't thou that senseless, sensual epicure, / That sink of filth, that guzzle most impure?
  5. The throat


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