guzzle definition

English

Alternative forms

• guzle
• guzzel

Etymology

Attested since 1576. Possibly imitative of the sound of drinking greedily, or from Old French gouziller, gosillier (“to pass through the throat”), from gosier (“throat”), and akin to Italian gozzo (“throat; a bird's crop”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌzəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌzəl

Verb

guzzle (third-person singular simple present guzzles, present participle guzzling, simple past and past participle guzzled)

1. To drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto.
   • 1720, John Gay, “Friday; or, the Dirge”, in Poems on Several Occasions‎^[1]:

     No more her care shall fill the hollow tray, / To fat the guzzling hogs with floods of whey.

   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 22:

     They had a delightful meal, eating as much as possible, for whenever they stopped eating the Puddin" sang out--
     "Eat away, chew away, munch and bolt and guzzle,
     Never leave the table till you're full up to the muzzle."

   • 1971, Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, “Oompa Loompa, Doompa-Dee-Do”, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:

     What do you get when you guzzle down sweets, / Eating as much as an elephant eats?

   • 2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football:

     It is Boxing Day in a football ground, and all we can do is sprawl over the plastic, hurling instructions and vague encouragement. The seat is an extension of the sofa, the match another Pick of the Day in the Radio Times. Some are wearing Santa hats, some have been drinking only six or seven hours after last stopping, guzzling away, topping up their levels to reach pie-eyed delirium.

2. (intransitive, dated) To consume alcoholic beverages, especially frequently or habitually.
   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes‎^[2]:

     A comparison more properly bestowed on those that came to guzzle in his wine cellar.

   • 1684, Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse‎^[3]:

     Well-seasoned bowls the gossip's spirits raise, Who, while she guzzles, chats the doctor's praise.

   • 1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians‎^[4]:

     Every theatre had it's footman's gallery: […] they guzzled, devoured, debauched, cheated, played cards, bullied visitors for vails: […]

3. (by extension) To consume anything quickly, greedily, or to excess, as if with insatiable thirst.

   This car just guzzles petrol.

   • 2004, Mike Rigby, quoted in The Freefoam Roofline Report, [5]

     China continues full steam ahead and the Americans continue to guzzle fuel, while supply becomes restricted.

Synonyms

• (to drink quickly, voraciously): swig, swill

Derived terms

• guzzler
• guzzly

Translations

See also

• guttle
• guddle

Noun

guzzle (plural guzzles)

1. (dated, uncountable) Drink; intoxicating liquor.

   Where squander'd away the tiresome minutes of your evening leisure over seal'd Winchesters of threepenny guzzle! — Tom Brown

2. (dated) A drinking bout; a debauch.
3. (dated) An insatiable thing or person.
4. (obsolete, Britain, provincial) A drain or ditch; a gutter; sometimes, a small stream. Also called guzzen.
   • 1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie‎^[6]:

     Means't thou that senseless, sensual epicure, / That sink of filth, that guzzle most impure?

   • 1623, W. Whately, Bride Bush:

     This is all one thing as if hee should goe about to jussle her into some filthy stinking guzzle or ditch.

5. The throat.