Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To drink.
  • intransitive verb To absorb or take in as if by drinking.
  • intransitive verb To receive and absorb into the mind.
  • intransitive verb Obsolete To permeate; saturate.
  • intransitive verb To drink alcoholic beverages.

from The Century Dictionary.

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

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

  • transitive verb To drink in; to absorb; to soak up; to suck or take in; to receive as by drinking.
  • transitive verb To receive or absorb into the mind and retain
  • transitive verb obsolete To saturate; to imbue.

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

  • verb To drink (used frequently of alcoholic beverages).
  • verb figuratively To take in; as, to imbibe knowledge.

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

  • verb receive into the mind and retain
  • verb take in, also metaphorically
  • verb take (gas, light or heat) into a solution
  • verb take in liquids

Etymologies

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

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin prefix im- ("im-") + bibere ("to drink"), whence also beverage (via Old French).

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