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Wassail vs Revelry - What's the difference?

wassail | revelry |

As nouns the difference between wassail and revelry

is that wassail is a toast to health, usually at a festival while revelry is joyful merry-making.

As a verb wassail

is to toast, to drink to the health of another.

wassail

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A toast to health, usually at a festival.
  • The beverage served during a wassail, especially one made of ale or wine flavoured with spices, sugar, roasted apples, etc.
  • Revelry.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • In merry wassail he peals his loud song.
  • * Prescott
    • The victors abandoned themselves to feasting and wassail .
  • A festive or drinking song or glee.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • Have you done your wassail ? 'Tis a handsome, drowsy ditty, I'll assure you.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To toast, to drink to the health of another.
    • The next morning he much regretted the gusto with which he had wassailed the night before.
  • To drink wassail.
  • To go from house to house at Christmastime, singing carols.
  • * 2002 , Christopher Morley, " Culture: Children carry a torch for carol king; John Joubert will be 75 next month", The Birmingham Post , 21 February 2002:
    • Schoolchildren around the globe have gleefully sung Torches at Christmastime for half a century. Many of those in Birmingham have wassailed the carol at the front door of a cosy Victorian house in Moseley, unaware that behind that front door lives its composer.
  • * 2006 , Ronald M. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols: The Stories Behind Twenty-Five Yuletide Favorites , Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (2006), ISBN 9781402741876, page 81:
    • During the Christmas season, carolers traveled from house to house, bringing good wishes and carrying an empty bowl. The master of the house being wassailed was expected to fill the bowl with hot, spicy ale.
  • * 2010 , Burton Cole, " Holiday mysteries to roast in your wassail", Tribune Chronicle , 26 December 2010:
    • "I wish someone would come to my house and wassail !" Jessica P. of Howland said.

    Synonyms

    * carol

    See also

    * (wikipedia "wassail") * (Wassailing) *

    revelry

    English

    Noun

    (revelries)
  • Joyful merry-making.
  • * 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]
    • The women pale and staring under the sun. In plain skirts, drab shoes. In hair scarves. Their drunken revelry jars.

    Synonyms

    * celebration, festivity, revelment

    Derived terms

    * revelrous