Can "drink" be used as an uncountable noun?

I recently got into an argument with someone who insists that

He brought drink to the party

is grammatically correct English and points to the phrase "food and drink" as justification. As a native English speaker, I consider that an obvious mistake and consider "food and drink" to be a fossilized phrase. Is this a regional difference, or are they just crazy? Is there any authoritative source I can point to on the matter?

Solution 1:

I feel this should be a comment, but there wouldn't be enough room, and the formatting [slightly amended] would be impossible.

From Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (perhaps the only US dictionary providing the breakdown):

drink noun; plural drinks

Learner's definition of DRINK

1: a liquid that you can drink : beverage

[count] We serve coffee, tea, and other hot drinks.

[noncount] Food and drink will be provided.

Though the example given is the 'fossilized phrase', the fact that this is not flagged as an unusual usage argues strongly that the non-count usage is considered acceptable in the US.

However, the fact that the Google Ngrams for 'ran out of drink' and 'we had no drink' for US usages flatline suggest strongly that the non-count usage is very rare there.

In summary, 'He brought drink to the party''is grammatically correct English' (so labels of 'ungrammatical' and 'incorrect' are unjustified); the usage is certainly idiomatic in the UK, but apparently not idiomatic in the US.

Solution 2:

The "someone" you have been speaking to is RIGHT. The OED has numerous uncountable senses of the noun drink, some from as early as 888CE. In the English spoken in the United Kingdom you will hear He brought drink to the party used, every day of the week - well -er as often as there is a party, anyway. I am frankly astonished that it is rarely used as an uncountable noun in America.

Some of the senses are:

1.a. Liquid swallowed for assuaging thirst or taken into the system for nourishment. Also fig.

c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xxv. 37 Þyrstendne & we ðe drinc sealdon.

c1220 Bestiary 206 Ðe godspel..is soule drink.

c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 14 Þei ȝeuen not drenk to pore þristi men.

▸c1426 J. Audelay Poems (1931) 7 Þe þorste ȝif dryng.

1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. xviii. 21 They dranke none other drynke, but the water of the ryuer.

1667 Milton Paradise Lost v. 344 For drink the Grape She crushes.

1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 319 The thirsty one, in that he thirsts, desires only drink.

1.b. esp. as correlative to solid nourishment (meat, food, etc.). meat and drink: see meat n. 1.

examples from c950 but: 1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 516 The crews had better food and drink than they had ever had before.

1c. transf. Liquid absorbed or drunk in.

1603 Shakespeare Hamlet iv. vii. 153 Till that her clothes, being heauy with their drinke, Dragg'd the sweete wretch to death.

1691 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense (ed. 8) 136 If they [plants] shrivel and fold up, give them drink.

a1800 W. Cowper Yardley-Oak in W. Hayley Life & Posthumous Writings Cowper (1804) III. 414 The scoop'd rind [of the oak], that seems A huge throat calling to the clouds for drink.

3.a. Intoxicating alcoholic beverage. Hence in various phrases: Indulgence to excess in intoxicating liquor; habits of intemperance, drunkenness. in drink: intoxicated, drunk.

1042 Anglo-Saxon Chron. Her gefor Harðacnut swa þæt he æt his drinc stod.

c1340 Cursor M. (Trin.) 2942 Ȝyue we our fadir [Lot] ynowȝe of drinke.

1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. viii. f. 151v, Hauing then his sences ouercome wyth drink.

1598 Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 ii. v. 419, I do not speake to thee in drinke.

a1616 Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iii. vi. 13 The two delinquents..That were the Slaues of drinke.

1659 D. Pell Πελαγος 79 Take heed that your Sea-men see not the least appearance of drink in your eyes.

1887 H. R. Tedder in Dict. National Biogr. IX. 330/2 With advancing years Caulfield took to drink.

1890 W. Besant Demoniac iv. 46 Not a drop of drink of any kind shall be put on board that boat.

1894 H. Caine Manxman 284 Heaving into the hall like a man in drink.

1897 N.E.D. at Drink, Mod. Drink's doings.

4. The action or habit of drinking (to excess); a time or occasion of drinking. rare exc. in colloq. phr. on the drink. Cf. drunk adj.

1865 Reader No. 148. 495/1 He has been out on the drink.

1887 H. R. Haggard Jess ii. 16 Her brute of a husband was away on the drink and gamble.

1894 R. S. Ferguson Charters Carlisle xxx, There was a great drink in Carlisle that night.

6. colloq. (orig. U.S.). A river or body of water. big drink n. the Mississippi; the Atlantic; the sea. Always preceded by the.

examples from 1832 - the most recent being:

1960 L. Meynell Bandaberry xiv. 183 [He] had fished us out of the drink just, and only just, in time.

Solution 3:

Drink noun [C or U]

• alcoholic liquid:

  • Do we have time for a quick drink?
  • Whose turn is it to buy the drinks?
  • UK - We ran out of drink at the party.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

Solution 4:

I am a canadian who has lived in England for decades, and I can say with certainty that uncountable use of 'drink' is standard in England and sounds foreign in Canada. There are other countability or singlular/plural differences including 'on a tuesday' (GB) = 'on tuesdays' (Canada), and referring to companies in the plural (GB) vs singular (Canada).