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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To drink.
  2. v. To absorb or take in as if by drinking: "The whole body . . . imbibes delight through every pore” ( Henry David Thoreau).
  3. v. To receive and absorb into the mind: "Gladstone had . . . imbibed a strong prejudice against Americans” ( Philip Magnus).
  4. v. Obsolete To permeate; saturate.
  5. v. To drink alcoholic beverages.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To drink in; absorb by or as if by drinking: as, a sponge imbibes moisture.
  2. To receive or admit into the mind; imbue one's mind with: as, to imbibe errors.
  3. To cause to drink in; imbue.
  4. To drink; absorb liquid or moisture.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
  2. v. To take in; as, to imbibe knowledge.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To drink in; to absorb; to soak up; to suck or take in; to receive as by drinking.
  2. v. To receive or absorb into the mind and retain
  3. v. To saturate; to imbue.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. receive into the mind and retain
  2. v. take in, also metaphorically
  3. v. take (gas, light or heat) into a solution
  4. v. take in liquids

Etymologies

  1. Middle English embiben, to soak up, saturate, from Latin imbibere, to drink in, imbibe : in-, in; see in-2 + bibere, to drink; see pō(i)- in Indo-European roots.

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‘imbibe’ has been looked up 2429 times, loved by 11 people, added to 77 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 12.