dram

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A unit of weight in the U.S. Customary System equal to ¹/₁₆ of an ounce or 27.34 grains (1.77 grams).
2. n. A unit of apothecary weight equal to ¹/₈ of an ounce or 60 grains (3.89 grams). See Table at measurement.
3. n. A small draft: took a dram of brandy.
4. n. A small amount; a bit: not a dram of compassion.
5. n. See Table at currency.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A unit of weight less than an ounce. The dram is generally supposed to be of Greek origin. Many weights of this denomination and its multiples have been exhumed at Athens, belonging to different systems, of 57, 67, 75, and 78 grains troy, and there were doubtless others. The Solonic dram, the Athenian monetary weight, had at first 67.4, later 66.6 grains troy. The Æginetan weight was greater, and is fixed by the latest authorities as normally 97 grains. A dram afterward appears in Phenician systems as a half or quarter of a shekel; and under the Ptolemies there was in Egypt a dram of 54.6 grains troy. Under the early Roman emperors a dram was introduced into the Roman system as ⅛ of an ounce, equal to 63.2 grains troy. This relation to the ounce has been preserved in several modern systems. Thus, in apothecaries' weight, a dram is ⅛ of an ounce, or 60 grains, divided into 3 scruples of 20 grains each. The avoirdupois dram, however (derived from the Spanish adarme), is only of an ounce, or grains. In the old Spanish apothecaries' weight a dram was of an ounce. In the Neapolitan system 10 drams made ah ounce of grains troy. The Nuremberg drachm was 57.5grains troy. The Tuscan dramma was 54.6 grains troy. In the Arabian systems the dram is properly represented by the mitcal, but the derham is often called a dram, and was in fact derived from the Attic drachma. Abbreviated dr.
2. n. A small quantity.
3. n. As much liquid as is drunk at once; specifically, a drink of spirits: as, a dram of brandy.
4. n. A division (one twentieth) of a raft of staves. See crib, 13.
5. To drink drams; indulge in the use of ardent spirits.
6. To give a dram or drams to; ply with drink.
7. To ascertain the fineness or size of by dram weight, as of a silk thread or yarn.
8. An abbreviation of dramatic and dramatist.

Wiktionary

1. n. A unit of weight avoirdupois
2. n. A minute quantity; a mite.
3. n. A small quantity of an alcoholic drink.
4. n. The currency of Armenia, divided into 100 luma.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A weight; in Apothecaries' weight, one eighth part of an ounce, or sixty grains; in Avoirdupois weight, one sixteenth part of an ounce, or 27.34375 grains.
2. n. A minute quantity; a mite.
3. n. As much spirituous liquor as is usually drunk at once; ; hence, a potation or potion.
4. n. A Persian daric.
5. v. To drink drams; to ply with drams.
6. n. same as dynamic ram.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a unit of apothecary weight equal to an eighth of an ounce or to 60 grains
2. n. the basic unit of money in Armenia
3. n. 1/16 ounce or 1.771 grams