booze

See also: Booze

English

Alternative forms

• boose

Etymology

Originally a Northern England dialectal form of bowse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /buːz/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /bʉwz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /buz/
• (Australia, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /bʉːz/

  • Audio (Australia):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /bʉz/
• Homophone: boos
• Rhymes: -uːz

Noun

booze (countable and uncountable, plural boozes)

2. (colloquial, uncountable) Any alcoholic beverage.

   Synonyms: liquor (broad sense), adult beverage

   Hypernyms: beverage, drink (broad sense)

   • 1922 November 13, “Three Poison Victims Drink Deadly Booze”, in The Indianapolis Times, page 6:
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

     The glutton castaway, the drunkard in the desert, the lecher in prison, they are the happy ones. To hunger, thirst, lust, every day afresh and every day in vain, after the old prog, the old booze, the old whores, that's the nearest we'll ever get to felicity, the new porch and the very latest garden.

   • 1995, Al Stewart, "Marion the Chatelaine" on Between the Wars

     She got caught between the shadows and the booze

     And she surely did know how to have the blues

   • 2025 February 2, Nadine Yousif, “Canadian fans boo US anthem as tariffs spur 'buy local' pledge”, in BBC News‎^[1], archived from the original on 28 August 2026:

     In some Canadian provinces […] American booze will be pulled off the shelves indefinitely starting on Tuesday.

   2. (colloquial, uncountable, sometimes specifically) Any hard liquor.

      Synonym: liquor (narrow sense)

      Hypernyms: liquor (broad sense), booze (broad sense), adult beverage, drink (narrow sense) < beverage, drink (broad sense)

4. (colloquial, countable, archaic) A session of drinking alcohol; a drinking party.

Synonyms

• grog; see also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

Derived terms

• booze artist
• boozebag
• booze baron
• booze bus
• booze can
• booze cruise
• booze cruising
• boozefest
• booze fighter
• boozehead
• boozehound
• booze jockey
• boozeless
• boozer
• boozeroo
• booze up
• booze-up
• boozorium
• boozy

Translations

any alcoholic beverage

• Arabic: كُحُول (ar) m (kuḥūl), خَمْر (ar) (ḵamr)
• Asturian: bebedera f, pimple m, piñatu m
• Belarusian: тру́нак m (trúnak)
• Bulgarian: алкохолна напитка (alkoholna napitka)
• Catalan: copa (ca) f, glop (ca) m, beure (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 酒 (zh) (jiǔ)

• Czech: chlast (cs) m
• Dutch: drank (nl)
• Dzongkha: ཆང (chang)
• Estonian: naps, kärakas, märjuke
• Faroese: sprutt n
• Finnish: viina (fi)
• French: bibine (fr) f, picole (fr) f
• Georgian: დასალევი (dasalevi), სასმელი (ka) (sasmeli)
• German: Schnaps (de) m, Fusel (de) m, Alkohol (de) m, Alkoholisches n, Alk (de) m
• Hungarian: pia (hu)
• Irish: deoch (ga) f
• Italian: alcolici (it) m pl
• Japanese: 酒 (ja) (sake)
• Kyrgyz: спирт ичимдиги (ky) f (spirt icimdigi), ичүү (ky) n (icüü)
• Latin: tēmētum n, ebriamen n
• Macedonian: пи́јачка f (píjačka)
• Marathi: दारू f (dārū)
• Navajo: yáadidahígíí
• Polish: procent (pl) (colloquial), trunek (pl) m, coś mocniejszego (colloquial), małe co nieco (pl) (colloquial), coś niecoś
• Portuguese: bebida (pt) f, birita (pt) f
• Romanian: pileală (ro), agheasmă (ro) f, băutură (ro) f, beutură (ro) f
• Russian: вы́пивка (ru) f (výpivka), бухло́ (ru) n (buxló) (slang)
• Scottish Gaelic: deoch f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: цуга f

  Latin: cuga (sh) f

• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wódka f

• Spanish: trago (es) m, aguardiente (es) m, (Mexico) chupe (es) m, copa (es) f, (Chile) copete (es) m, bebercio m (Spain, colloquial), priva (es) f (Spain, slang, uncountable), escabio (es) m (Latin America, colloquial), alipús m, chínguere m, birra (es) f
• Thai: เหล้า (th) (lâo)
• Turkish: içki (tr)
• Ukrainian: ви́пивка f (výpyvka), бухло́ n (buxló) (slang)

See also

• piss
• plonk

Verb

booze (third-person singular simple present boozes, present participle boozing, simple past and past participle boozed)

1. (slang, intransitive) To drink alcohol.

   We were out all night boozing until we dragged ourselves home hung over.

   • 1884, Hugh Reginald Haweis, My Musical Life:

     This is better than boozing in public houses.

2. (slang, transitive) To drink (an alcoholic beverage).
   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 62:

     It's worse than kerosene to boose.

Derived terms

• outbooze

Translations

slang:to drink alcohol

• Esperanto: drinki
• Finnish: ryypätä (fi), dokata (fi), vetää kännit, vetää lärvit
• French: picoler (fr)
• German: saufen (de), bechern (de), picheln (de)
• Kyrgyz: ичүү (ky) (icüü)
• Macedonian: пи́јанчи (píjanči)
• Norman: riboter
• Polish: tankować (pl), urzynać się (pl), grzać (pl), golić (pl), ciągnąć (pl), doić (pl), trąbić (pl), gazować (pl), zalewać się (pl), chlusnąć (pl) impf, chlać (pl) (derogatory)
• Romanian: bețivi, pili (ro), chercheli (ro), aghesmui (ro)
• Russian: буха́ть (ru) (buxátʹ), сообрази́ть на трои́х (soobrazítʹ na troíx) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian: цугати, cugati (sh)
• Slovak: piť (sk), slopať, nasávať, chľastať
• Spanish: escabiar (es) m (Latin America, colloquial), pimplarse (es)
• Swedish: supa (sv)
• Ukrainian: ме́кнути (uk) pf (méknuty), буха́ти (uk) impf (buxáty)
• Volapük: ludrinön (vo)
• Yiddish: זויפֿן (zoyfn)

Dutch

Adjective

booze

1. obsolete spelling of boze