inebriate
inebriate Lexical Profile
inebriate Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To make someone drunk or intoxicated with alcohol.
"The potent homemade wine quickly began to inebriate the dinner guests."
To exhilarate, excite, or confuse someone mentally or emotionally as if by alcohol.
"Sudden fame and adulation can easily inebriate a young artist."
• noun
A person who is drunk, especially one who is habitually intoxicated.
"In the late nineteenth century, several reformatories were established specifically to house and treat chronic inebriates."
• adjective
Drunk or intoxicated; affected by alcohol or exhilarating emotion.
"The poet wrote of wandering through the city streets in an inebriate daze of youthful joy."
Word Nuance & Usage
Notice the pronunciation difference across parts of speech: as a verb, 'inebriate' ends with a long 'a' sound (-ayt), whereas as a noun or adjective, it ends with an unstressed schwa sound (-it); in modern usage, the participial form 'inebriated' is far more common as an adjective.
• Rhymes for inebriate
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 15th century from Latin 'inebriatus', the past participle of 'inebriare' ('to make drunk'), formed from the intensive prefix 'in-' and 'ebriare' ('to intoxicate'), from 'ebrius' ('drunk').