drink n.1
1. (US) a river.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | City of the Saints 18: [note] A ‘Drink’ is any river; the Big Drink is the Mississippi. | |
| Jamestown Wkly (ND) 19 Jan. 2/7: In the hamlet across the drink. | |
 | Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/4: Pearl, a waitress [...] who had also been found in the drink one morning. |
2. the ocean, the sea, a lake.
| Westward Ho! I 121: Shut pan, and sing dumb, or I’ll throw you into the drink. | |
| Streaks of Squatter Life 105: About evenin’ I got my small dug-out, and [...] jest paddled over the drink. | |
| Bay Path 137: You’d better scull your dug-out over the drink again, and go to splittin’ oven-wood. | |
| [ | | Americanisms 600: Drink, in Western slang, is often used to designate a river or a pond, and the Mississippi thus appears quite frequently as the Big Drink]. |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Daily News 8 Aug. in (1909) 230/2: Zeus threw a thunderbolt at the rock, and, as the American says Ajax was ‘spilled in the drink’. | |
| Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 15: bottom of the drink Bottom of the lake or river. | |
| Herald (L.A.) 2 Sept. 5/5: It’s a dead open that the garment was cut from a hoss-blanket Tod brought across the drink with him. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 23: He was well under way on the briny drink when a piece of ‘inside info’ came his way. | |
| ‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 12 July 4/4: Why do your dillpickle dreadnaughts always try to kick me off the surface of the drink, huh? | |
| Classics in Sl. 30: Goin’ down to the dock she pulls a Brodie into the drink, thusly endin’ all. | |
| Gangster Girl 13: The boys knocked ’em on the noodle and chucked ’em in the drink. | |
| Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 20: I was a bit frightened in case he hit the drink. [Ibid.] 255: At that height you would only have to hiccough and you would be in the drink. | |
| Absolute Beginners 100: I sat on the grass, and took off my nylon stretch and Itie clogs [...] and stepped into the drink. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Holy Smoke 55: They slung him in the drink. | |
| (con. WWII) Hollywoodland (1981) 72: Buddy, you wouldn’t catch me on no washtub out there in the drink. | |
| Close Pursuit (1988) 33: Beat the hooker to death. Threw him in the drink off Baretto Point. | |
| Lucky You 281: I had all morning to blow your head off in the middle of nowhere and dump your body in the drink. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Be My Enemy 166: The purpose of the construction was not to get the squaddies over the drink. | |
| Kill Shot [ebook] ‘If there’s any doubt, I’ll call for reinforcements.’ Mick Fleming smiled into his beer. ‘Out in the middle of the drink’. | |
| (con. 1991-94) City of Margins 21: [T]ake him out to the Marine Parkway Bridge. [...] Toss him straight in the drink. |
3. the River Thames.
| Gilt Kid 198: One fine day they’ll find you floating the Thames and nobody’ll worry two damns about how an old lag like you came to fall into the Drink. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 157: That’ll teach the Williams bruvvers not to mess about on our side o’ the drink. |
4. see drank n.
In compounds
(US black) a ship.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 26 Aug. 12A: I have been riding these drink wagons since ’42. |
In phrases
1. the Mississippi River.
| Daily Picayune (N.O.) 24 Mar. 2/2: There never would have been any Atlantic ocean if it hadn’t been for the Mississippi, nor never will be after we’ve turned the waters of that big drink into the Mammoth Cave! [DA]. | |
| City of the Saints 18: The dirty brown silt which pollutes [...] the pellucid waters of the ‘Big Drink’ [note] A ‘Drink’ is any river; the Big Drink is the Mississippi. | |
| Down in Tennessee 108: I’s bin on the Big Drink. | |
| Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 14 Dec. 1s/2: My Missis, who can fix a tea-table with any lady west of the Big Drink, is down with the fever. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. |
2. (also heavy drink) the ocean, esp. the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Bungalow or Tent 227: The vision of an ocean of milk in the ‘Big drink’. | |
| Leeds Times 7 June 6/6: A West Indian steamer had just arrived and this particular hotel was largely patronized by the voyagers across the ‘big drink’. | |
| Gippsland Times (Vic.) 20 June 3/6: They kicked over the traces altogether -...] since you crossed the big drink. | |
| Mount Royal II 79: I was coming across the Big Drink as fast as a Cunard could bring me. | |
| On Blue Water 189: When first I stepped on board the old cabbage-wood dug-out, I thought: ‘If this thing carries me across the big drink without trouble, that’s about all it will do’. | |
| Northampton Mercury 15 Dec. 10/4: The growing interest taken by readers in this country in the literary productions of our cousins across ‘the big drink’. | |
| Aus. Town & Country Jrnl )NSW) 12 Aug. 34/3: Our cousins across the ‘big drink’ can give us points when it comes to devising any kind of [...] amusement. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 31 Mar. 11/3: He took ‘Tommy’ Hogan across the ‘big drink’. | |
| My View on Books in N.Y. Times Mag. 21 May 7/5: When it comes to stories about the big drink W. Clark can go some. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Ohinemuri Gaz. (N.Z.) 22 Nov. 1/4: He came over ‘the big drink’ some months ago. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. | |
| West. Champion (Barcaldine, Qld) 21 Dec. 21/1: Women over the other side of the Big Drink know what’s what in joolery. | |
| Und. Speaks. | |
| Portland Guardian (Vic.) 2 July 3/7: The bus took the air, fluttered hesitatingly and promptly dived into the big drink. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 June 13: The snitchers on the wrong side of the heavy drink. | |
| in By Himself (1974) 181: I am sending you some newspapers and clippings that will probably give you an idea of the way people are thinking on this side of the big drink. | |
| Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 3 Aug. 4/1: Later, with improved navigational and meteorological services, crossing the ‘big drink’ became commonplace. | |
| Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA) 9 Feb. 5/3: Donovan couldn’t even swear in Irish when he saw his spotless engines disappear in the Big Drink. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| (con. 1941) Gunner 189: Come on Tarz. Time to go down to the Big Drink. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
an ATM.
| personal correspondence: drink-link – a modern term for a cashpoint machine (ATM). Named so because it is common to visit one before going out on the booze! | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Drink Link (n): a bank ATM. |
(US) a bartender.
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 461: ‘An’ him a drink-slinger!’ Billy marveled. ‘He can sure sling the temperance dope.’. |
In phrases
1. (US) as a measure of size, small.
| in TAD Lex. (1993) 101: What a shrimp. — He isn’t much bigger than a drink of water. | |
| Indoor Sports 27 Jan. [synd. cartoon] Pipe the size of the boob. He’s only as big as a drink of water. |
2. a weakling; an irritating person, a bore.
| Williamsburg Jrnl. Trib. (IA) 23 Feb. 2/4: The latest expression is ‘You luke warm drink of water.’ Everybody is saying it . | |
| , | | DAS 34/2: big drink of water A youth or man, esp. if tall, who is uninteresting, dull, or boring. |
| (con. 1900s) Shootist 250: He was a long drink of water called ‘Mount’ Murray. | |
| Assault with a Deadly Weapon 73: Then my old man say, ‘I’m ready for you, big drink of water.’ I immediately hit him with the coffee table. | |
| Slanguage. | |
| Triggerfish Twist (2002) 100: Serge was a spastic, skinny drink of water. |