To drink the health of

Drink Drink, v. t. 1. To swallow (a liquid); to receive, as a fluid, into the stomach; to imbibe; as, to drink milk or water. [1913 Webster]

There lies she with the blessed gods in bliss, There drinks the nectar with ambrosia mixed. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]

The bowl of punch which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty's room. --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]

2. To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe. [1913 Webster]

And let the purple violets drink the stream. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

3. To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see. [1913 Webster]

To drink the cooler air, --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of that tongue's utterance. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Let me . . . drink delicious poison from thy eye. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

4. To smoke, as tobacco. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

And some men now live ninety years and past, Who never drank to tobacco first nor last. --Taylor (1630.) [1913 Webster]

{To drink down}, to act on by drinking; to reduce or subdue; as, to drink down unkindness. --Shak.

{To drink in}, to take into one's self by drinking, or as by drinking; to receive and appropriate as in satisfaction of thirst. ``Song was the form of literature which he [Burns] had drunk in from his cradle.'' --J. C. Shairp.

{To drink off} or {To drink up}, to drink completely, especially at one draught; as, to drink off a cup of cordial.

{To drink the health of}, or {To drink to the health of}, to drink while expressing good wishes for the health or welfare of. [1913 Webster]