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Quaff and Slug
Nowadays, quaff has an old-fashioned, literary sound to it. For more contemporary words that suggest drinking a lot of something, especially in big gulps and in large quantity, you might try drain, pound, or slug. If you are a daintier drinker, you might say that you prefer to sip, imbibe or partake in the beverage of your choice. Quaff is by no means the oldest of these terms—earliest evidence of it in use is from the early 1500s, whereas sip dates to the 14th century—but it is the only one with the mysterious "origin unknown" etymology.
Synonyms
Examples of quaff in a Sentence
M. Carrie Allan, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2024
Guests, who paid $17,000 per couple to get a seat at the proceedings, were able to bid while quaffing some of the world’s finest wines.
—Howard Walker, Robb Report, 29 Jan. 2024
Celebrities, chefs, celebrity chefs and guests noshed and quaffed at the 11th annual L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade Stand benefit Saturday at UCLA, which raised more than $1.4 million for childhood cancer research.
—Pat Saperstein, Variety, 26 Sep. 2023
But ancient cave dwellers weren’t sitting around the fire quaffing crisp lagers and hazy IPAs.
—Leslie Shapiro, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2023
Although it’s not easily noticed when quaffing a brew, Berkeley’s yeast strains have brought about perhaps the biggest shift in brewing since the now iconic Citra, Mosaic, and Galaxy hops took off in the 2010s.
—Anna Kramer, WIRED, 18 July 2023
He’s quaffed everything from seafood ramen soda from Japan to caramel apple soda from Texas.
—Hallie Lieberman, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 June 2023
Inside, drinkers at long tables quaff creative beers brewed on premises (7.75 dollars a pint).
—Remy Scalza, New York Times, 25 May 2023
Literate chimps urged us to quaff more of it.
—Will Noble, CNN, 10 June 2021
Lana Bortolot, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
The spirits here are clearly the star of the show, but the Vault offers a minimal food service to accompany its quaffs.
—Tori Latham, Robb Report, 30 Aug. 2023
Serve chilled or over ice for the most refreshing quaff.
—Alisha McDarris, Popular Science, 2 Aug. 2023
Good works directly with the Colombian Coffee Federation to compensate farmers for their fruit waste before concentrating it and shipping it to its distillery in New York, where it is then magically transformed into this delicious quaff.
—Treehugger Editors, Treehugger, 29 June 2023
Still, there’s something about the idea of a boozy drink made with a kids’ quaff that feels transgressive, like giving a child candy cigarettes (which, shockingly, still exist?).
—Emily Heil, Washington Post, 15 May 2023
As if by magic, this quaff delivers everything there is to love about whiskey, but without the booze or harsh burning sensation.
—Allison Robicelli, Washington Post, 4 May 2023
Juicy strawberries, wild herbs and a saline minerality combine for a refreshing, even invigorating quaff.
—Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2021
Small distilleries like Empirical Spirits are working on uncategorizable drinks made of stuff like plum pits, for the resilient quaff of tomorrow.
—Adam Rogers, Wired, 2 Aug. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'quaff.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near quaff
Cite this Entry
“Quaff.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quaff. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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