drench

From Middle English drenchen, from Old English drenċan, from Proto-West Germanic *drankijan, from Proto-Germanic *drankijaną (compare Dutch drenken ‘to get a drink’, German tränken ‘to water, give a drink’), causative of *drinkaną (“to drink”). More at drink.

• IPA^(key): /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

drench (plural drenches)

1. A draught administered to an animal.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     Give my roan horse a drench.

2. (obsolete) A drink; a draught; specifically, a potion of medicine poured or forced down the throat; also, a potion that causes purging.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     A drench of wine has with success been us'd,
     And through a horn the gen'rous juice infus'd,
     Which, timely taken, op'd his closing jaws,
     But, if too late, the patient's death did cause.

   • 1907, Mark Twain, Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy:

     I took up the 'Christian Scientist' book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other half.

• horse-drench

drench (third-person singular simple present drenches, present participle drenching, simple past and past participle drenched)

1. To soak, to make very wet.
   • 1697, Virgil, “Pastoral”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Now dam the ditches and the floods restrain; / Their moisture has already drenched the plain.

2. To cause to drink; especially, to dose (e.g. a horse) with medicine by force.

• sun-drenched

• drenched (adjective)
• drenching (noun)

drench (plural drenches)

1. Alternative form of dreng[1]

• drench in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913