What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Food vs Drink - What's the difference?

food | drink |

As nouns the difference between food and drink

is that food is any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life while drink is a beverage.

As a verb drink is

to consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

food

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) Any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • (countable) A foodstuff.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
  • Mozart and Bach are food for my soul.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Shakespeare)
  • This may prove food to my displeasure.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Wordsworth)
  • In this moment there is life and food / For future years.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "food": raw, cooked, baked, fried, grilled, processed, healthy, unhealthy, wholesome, nutritious, safe, toxic, tainted, adulterated, tasty, delicious, fresh, stale, sweet, sour, spicy, exotic, marine.

    Synonyms

    * (substance consumed by living organisms) bellytimber, chow (slang), comestible (formal), eats (slang), feed (for domesticated animals), fodder (for domesticated animals), foodstuffs, nosh (slang), nourishment, sustenance, victuals * (anything intended to supply energy or nourishment of an entity or idea) brainfood * (foodstuff) bellytimber, foodstuff

    Derived terms

    * cat food * comfort food * dog food * fast food * food bank * food chain * food fight * food for thought * food pyramid * food stamp * foodstuff * foody * health food * junk food * rabbit food * seafood * soul food * whole food

    See also

    * breakfast * brunch * dinner * dunch * lunch, luncheon * meal * supper *

    Statistics

    *

    drink

    English

    Alternative forms

    * drinck (obsolete)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (ambitransitive) To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
  • * Spenser
  • There lies she with the blessed gods in bliss, / There drinks the nectar with ambrosia mixed.
  • * Thackeray
  • the bowl of punch which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty's room
  • *
  • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.}}
  • To consume alcoholic beverages.
  • * Thackeray
  • Bolingbroke always spoke freely when he had drunk freely.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I drink to the general joy of the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo.
  • To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.
  • * Dryden
  • Let the purple violets drink the stream.
  • To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.
  • * Tennyson
  • to drink the cooler air
  • * Shakespeare
  • My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Let me drink delicious poison from thy eye.
  • (obsolete) To smoke, as tobacco.
  • * Taylor (1630)
  • And some men now live ninety years and past, / Who never drank tobacco first nor last.
    Synonyms
    * gulp, imbibe, quaff, sip, see also * (consume alcoholic beverages) drink alcohol
    Derived terms
    * drinkable * drink and drive * drinker * drinking * drink like a fish * drink under the table * drink up

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Compare (etyl) (m).

    Noun

  • A beverage.
  • A (served) alcoholic beverage.
  • The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take'' or ''have .
  • A type of beverage (usually mixed).
  • Alcoholic beverages in general.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks , and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • * '>citation
  • Any body of water.
  • (uncountable, archaic) Drinks in general; something to drink
  • * , (w) 25:35:
  • For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink
    Usage notes
    * A plainer term than more elevated term (beverage). Beverage is of French origin, while drink is of Old English origin, and this stylistic difference by origin is common; see (list of English words with dual French and Anglo-Saxon variations).
    Synonyms
    * (served beverage) beverage, see also * (served alcoholic beverage) beverage, see also * (action of drinking) gulp, sip, swig * (type of beverage) beverage * (alcoholic beverages in general) alcohol
    Derived terms
    * the big drink * drink-driver * drink-driving * drive to drink * in the drink * straw that stirs the drink * take to drink