Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To wet through and through; soak.
  • transitive verb To administer a large oral dose of liquid medicine to (an animal).
  • transitive verb To provide with something in great abundance; surfeit.
  • noun The act of wetting or becoming wet through and through.
  • noun Something that drenches.
  • noun A large dose of liquid medicine, especially one administered to an animal by pouring down the throat.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A drink; a draught.
  • noun A large draught of fluid; an inordinate drink.
  • noun Hence A draught of physic; specifically, a dose of medicine for a beast, as a horse.
  • noun That with or in which something is drenched; a provision or preparation for drenching or steeping.
  • To wet thoroughly; soak; steep; fill or cover with water or other liquid: as, garments drenched with rain or in the sea; swords drenched in blood; the flood has drenched the earth.
  • To gorge or satiate with a fluid: as, he drenched himself with liquor.
  • Specifically, to administer liquid physic to abundantly, especially in a forcible way.
  • . To drown.
  • To subject (hides) to the effect of soaking and stirring in a solution of animal excrements or an alkaline solution.
  • To drown.
  • noun A less correct form of dreng.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A drink; a draught; specifically, a potion of medicine poured or forced down the throat; also, a potion that causes purging.
  • transitive verb To cause to drink; especially, to dose by force; to put a potion down the throat of, as of a horse; hence. to purge violently by physic.
  • transitive verb To steep in moisture; to wet thoroughly; to soak; to saturate with water or other liquid; to immerse.
  • noun (O. Eng. Law), obsolete A military vassal mentioned in Domesday Book.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A draught administered to an animal.
  • verb To soak, to make very wet.
  • noun obsolete, UK A military vassal, mentioned in the Domesday Book.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb permeate or impregnate
  • verb drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged
  • verb force to drink
  • verb cover with liquid; pour liquid onto

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English drenchen, to drown, from Old English drencan, to give to drink, drown; see dhreg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Anglo-Saxon dreng warrior, soldier, akin to Icelandic drengr.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • Sustainable Control of Parasites group (SCOPs) is to use a white (BZ) drench, which is effective against nematodirus and suitable for young lambs, says Ms Philips.

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  • One day we had to play the goat doctors giving them a good "drench", some liquid medicine.

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  • The song is 'drench' in sex, and it's the first time I've ever heard a pop song with the words video for the album is the song "Red State / Blue State".

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  • The key is to gently coat each leaf, but not drench it.

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  • The key is to gently coat each leaf, but not drench it.

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  • On Tuesday, Economics Minister Banri Kaieda had ordered the company to drench with water a pool containing nuclear waste material, after the water level at the pool—used to cool the fuel rods of the fourth of the plant's six reactors—reached zero at one point without Tepco injecting more, according the ministry.

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  • Afer dark I would go to the same area and drench the lawn with the hose.

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  • This subtle, heartfelt British gem will still drench most anyone's Kleenex nearly seven decades after its release.

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  • Afer dark I would go to the same area and drench the lawn with the hose.

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  • Later on Saturday and into Sunday, heavy rain from the storm will drench portions of the interior Northeast and New England, Moore says.

    Stormy weekend ahead for Plains, South and Northeast 2011

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