▪ I. † ˈdrunken, n. Obs.
[OE. druncen n., f. druncen pa. pple.]
Drunkenness, intoxication.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xxi. 34 Ne sie ahefiᵹad hearto iuero on oferfyllo & mið druuncen [Rushw. druncennisse]. a 1000 Imposition of Penance in Thorpe Laws II. 276 (Bosw.) Gif hit þurh druncen ᵹewurþe. a 1200 Moral Ode 253 Þe luueden tening and stale, hordom and drunken. |
▪ II. drunken, ppl. a.
(ˈdrʌŋkən)
Also Sc. 6 drokin, 7– druken, drucken.
[pa. pple. of drink v.: cf. drunk. The Sc. and northern drucken is from Norse: cf. Icel. pa. pple. drukkinn.]
1. Overcome by liquor; intoxicated; = drunk.
| a 1050 Liber Scintill. xxviii. (1889) 107 Ealswa se druncena [ebriosus] win onfehð unhold. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 871 He woren drunken and slepi. a 1300 Cursor M. 27894 Þe drunken semes in his misfare Noght lik þe man þat he was are. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 852 Ye fare as folkes that dronken ben of ale. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 3642 Some..saide thai ware dronken and fulle of must hardily. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 630 How King Duncane send the Wyne and Aill browin with mukil Wort to King Sueno, quhairwith thai war all drokin. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. vi. 23 They..seiz'd with youthful Arms the drunken God. c 1850 Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 494 Drunken people are never seen making disturbances in open day. 1865 Rawlinson Anc. Mon. III. iv. 95 Who drink till they are drunken. |
b. In proverbs and locutions.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1500 [He] bibbes þer-of Tyl he be dronkken as the deuel. 1562 Pilkington Wks. (Parker Soc.) 51 ‘A drunken man is always dry’, according to the proverb. 1619 R. Harris Drunkard's Cup 13 A drunken man neuer takes harme. 1887 Scotsman 19 Mar., The drucken man gets the drucken penny. |
c. transf. and fig.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxv. 9 Þan sall þai all be drunkyn in god þat wonys in godis hows. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxix. 9 Be ȝe drunken inwardli, and not of wyn. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 291 Inebryate or dronken with heuenly ioye. 1578 Timme Caluine on Gen. 313 Dronken with the flatteries of prosperity. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xvi. 196 We were so drunken with cold that we strode on steadily. |
2. Given to drink; habitually intemperate. (The more common current sense.)
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 26 b, Could neither have money nor men of the dronken Fleminges. 1610 Shakes. Temp. v. i. 277 Is not this Stephano, my drunken Butler? 1769 Junius Lett. iii. 18 You..represent your friend in the character of a drunken landlord. 1786 Burns Lines on meeting w. Ld. Daer ii, I've been at druken writers' feasts. 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa I. 163 Drunken, lazy, good-for-nothing fellows. |
3. Of actions, etc.: Characterized by or proceeding from intoxication.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Bevida, drink, a potion, a drunken match. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 44 Dutch & drunken deuises, about the gaining of the grounde. 1632 Massinger Maid of Hon. i. i, To take up a drunken brawl. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 189 ¶6 Men who..destroy in a drunken frolick the happiness of families. 1842 Tennyson Locksley Hall 81 Pointing to his drunken sleep. |
b. Of or pertaining to drink or drunkenness.
| 1607 Wilkins Inforced Marr. v. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 556 You in riot's house, A drunken tavern, spilled my maintenance. 1791 Burke Th. Fr. Affairs Wks. VII. 76 The delirium of a low, drunken alehouse club. |
c. That causes drunkenness. See 6 b.
4. transf. Soaked or saturated with moisture; sometimes (with sense affected by 1) ‘drowned’.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ix. 34 But glad is hit [radish] to loke on drunkun ayer. 1535 Coverdale Deut. xxxii. 42 I wil make myne arowes dronken with bloude. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 47 She..The drunken lampe downe in the oyle did steepe. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 170 The..Ploughman..Drains the standing Waters, when they yield Too large a Bev'rage to the drunken Field. |
5. fig. Of a thing: Uneven, unsteady, reeling in motion or course; off the vertical.
| 1786 [implied in drunkenness c.]. 1870 Eng. Mech. 11 Feb. 526/2 There are no abrupt breaks to form what would be called by a screw chaser ‘a drunken thread’. 1876 J. Rose Pract. Machinist (1885) 106 If the tool is moved irregularly or becomes checked in its forward movement, the thread will become drunken, that is, it will not move forward at a uniform speed. 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 69 You have now..no excuse for drunken architecture. |
6. Comb., as drunkenmost adj., most drunken, drunkenest.
| 1854 H. Vicars in Miss Marsh Mem. vii. 143 Four hundred of the drunkenmost and wildest men in the regiment. |
b. esp. in names of intoxicating plants, or of such as suggest drunkenness: drunken date, the betel-nut tree; drunken plant, drunken rye-grass, darnel grass, Lolium temulentum; † drunken-wort, tobacco (Minsheu Ductor 1617).
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal iii. cxxxix. (1633) 1520 Areca sive Fausel, the drunken date tree. 1611 Cotgr., Noisette des Indes, the drunken Date. 1891 Griffith tr. Fouard's Christ Son of God I. 304 note, L'ivraie, drunken rye-grass. |
▪ III. † ˈdrunken, v.1 Obs.
Forms: 1 druncnian, 2–3 druncnen, druncnie (Orm.) drunncnenn, 4 drunken, -yn, drunkne, dronken, -in, drownkyn.
[ONorthumb. druncnia, ON. drukna (:—*druŋkna) to be drowned = Goth. *druggknan, a neuter-passive vb. in -nan derived from pa. pple. *druŋk-an- of *driŋk-an to drink: lit. to be drunk or swallowed up (by water). Cf. Ger. ertrinken to swallow up, drown.]
1. intr. To become swallowed up or sunk in water; to suffer drowning, be drowned.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xiv. 30 Mið ðy ongann druncnia [Rushw. in-gon sincan, Ags. G. wearð ᵹedofen] cliopade cueð drihten hal mec doa. a 1225 St. Marher. 15 Ich leade ham..into se deop dung þ{supt} ha druncneð þerin. a 1225 Ancr. R. 58 Leste eni best ualle þer inne, & druncnie ine sunne. a 1300 Cursor M. 24862 Quen þe scip suld quelm and drunken [v.r. dronkin]. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 138 In se dronkenes folc ful fele. |
2. trans. To swallow up in water; to drown.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 39 Þe swin urnen..into þe sæ, and druncnede hem seluen. c 1200 Ormin 6795 All follc wass þurrh Noþess flodd O Noþess time drunncnedd. a 1340 Hampole Psalter Cant. 504 Hys chosen prynces ere drunkynd in þe rede see. |
3. To drench, saturate or soak with liquid.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxiv [lxv.] 10 Þou soght þe land, and dronkened it yhite. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxviii[i]. 3 Þe storme me drownkynd. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xvi. 9, I shal drunkne thee with my tere. Ibid. lv. 10 What maner cometh doun weder and snoȝ fro heuene, and..drunkneth [1388 fillith, Vulg. inebriat] the erthe. |
| fig. 1382 Wyclif Jer. xxxi. 14 Y shal inwardly drunkne the soule of the prestus with fatnesse. |
▪ IV. † ˈdrunken, v.2 Obs.
[OE. druncnian, f. druncen drunken: in later use perh. a new formation.]
intr. To drink to excess, to become drunk.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. (Th.) II. 70 Þonne ða ᵹebeoras druncniað. 1658 A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. ii. iii. 55 If a Patient..fall on gourmandizing and drunkning, then no good is to be looked for. 1693 Southerne Maid's Last Prayer 56 The Captain has been Drunkning with my Lord all Night. 1697 View of Penal Laws 3 Notorious Offenders, such as continue drunkening at late and unseasonable hours. |