Why a Drinker Is Almost Never Drinking Water
Everyone drinks, but only some people are called drinkers. The bare word carries an assumption about alcohol that the verb does not.
A drinker is, in theory, anyone who drinks. In practice the bare noun means someone who drinks alcohol, and how much is signalled by the adjective in front: a social drinker, a heavy drinker, a hardened drinker. Say *I am not a drinker* and nobody thinks you are avoiding tea.
- Someone who drinks alcohol. *He was never a big drinker.*
- Someone who drinks a particular thing. *A coffee drinker.*
- A vessel or trough for animals. *Fill the drinkers before dawn.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | drinker | A tea drinker. |
| Plural | drinkers | Fewer drinkers than before. |
| Verb | drink | Drink slowly. |
| Past | drank | She drank the lot. |
| Participle | drunk | I have drunk enough. |
How it is used in a sentence
- I am not much of a drinker.A polite way of declining alcohol.
- She is a serious coffee drinker.With a drink named, the assumption disappears.
- Heavy drinkers were the focus of the study.Heavy drinker is the standard term in health research.
The scale English uses
- Teetotaller — drinks no alcohol at all
- Social drinker — drinks in company, moderately
- Heavy drinker — drinks a lot, regularly
- Binge drinker — drinks a great deal in one session
- Drunkard — old-fashioned and judgemental; most writing now avoids it
From Old English *drincan*, one of the core verbs of the language, with the *-er* ending that turns any verb into the person doing it. The strange word in this family is *teetotaller*, from an emphatic repetition of the T in *total*.
Drank or drunk?
Drank is the simple past: *I drank it*. Drunk is the participle: *I have drunk it*.
Is calling someone a drinker rude?
It can be. Heavy drinker is a description; drunkard and drunk are judgements, and health writing prefers neutral phrases such as someone who drinks heavily.