Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To make drunk; intoxicate.
  • transitive verb To exhilarate or stupefy.
  • adjective Intoxicated.
  • noun An intoxicated person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make drunk; intoxicate.
  • Figuratively, to exhilarate extravagantly; intoxicate mentally or emotionally.
  • Drunk; intoxicated, literally or figuratively.
  • noun A habitual drunkard.

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

  • adjective Intoxicated; drunk; habitually given to drink; stupefied.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To become drunk.
  • transitive verb To make drunk; to intoxicate.
  • transitive verb Fig.: To disorder the senses of; to exhilarate or elate as if by spirituous drink; to deprive of sense and judgment; also, to stupefy.
  • noun One who is drunk or intoxicated; esp., an habitual drunkard.

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

  • noun A person who is intoxicated, especially one who is habitually drunk.
  • verb To cause to be drunk.

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

  • verb fill with sublime emotion
  • noun a chronic drinker
  • verb become drunk or drink excessively
  • verb make drunk (with alcoholic drinks)

Etymologies

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

[Latin inēbriāre, inēbriāt- : in-, intensive pref.; see in– + ēbriāre, to intoxicate (from ēbrius, drunk; see egwh- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin inebriare, from ebrius, drunk

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Examples

  • Like the sparkle of the red wine to the inebriate are the seductive influences of the ballroom.

    Choice Readings for the Home Circle Anonymous

  • Bones evade her as he did us at such moments, or would he save our reputation, and consent, for the moment, to accept her as a new kind of inebriate?

    Selected Stories of Bret Harte Bret Harte 1869

  • But Roger felt far otherwise; and this sudden qualm of conscience once quelled (I will say there seemed much of palliation in the matter), a kind of inebriate feeling of delight filled his mind, and Steady Acton plodded on to the meadow yonder, half a mile a-head, in a species of delirious complacency.

    The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper Martin Farquhar Tupper 1849

  • Until my recent trip to Anchorage, Alaska, I had never heard the term "Chronic Public Inebriate," yet in Alaska the word "inebriate" is spoken everywhere.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Mark Horvath 2010

  • Yet in Alaska the word "inebriate" is spoken everywhere.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Mark Horvath 2010

  • He was greeted with round on round of affectionate cheers, which brought a suspicious moisture to his eyes, albeit many of the voices were inarticulate and inebriate.

    Chapter III 2010

  • The kids are all resourceful and responsible and pitch in financially when needed, while dad is an incontinent, inveterate, indecorous inebriate.

    Tonight's TV Hot List: Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011 2011

  • Had she been some rowdy inebriate they might have turned the plane around or emergency-landed.

    Lionel: Olfactory Terror at 36K Feet 2010

  • Ready availability being the most precious of Prohibition virtues, gin was lifted above the historical pedigree that led Willa Cather to call it “the consolation of sailors and inebriate scrub-women.”

    LAST CALL DANIEL OKRENT 2010

  • In silence, she sipped her wine and seduced the big yellow moon with her naked body until her sadness was beginning to inebriate itself away.

    The Punany Experience Jessica Holter 2010

Comments

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  • 1555 EDEN Decades 259 Such stronge drinkes as are of force to inebriate.

    July 18, 2008

  • A word unutterable by an inebriate.

    November 7, 2008