: an enjoyable beverage : a beverage (such as wine) that is quaffed or suitable for quaffing
This pleasant quaff offers ripe peach and vanilla flavors and a good balance of bright acidity and moderate sweetness.Wine Spectator
… there is no better quaff with fried chicken than Champagne. Florence Fabricant
2
: a hearty draft or gulp
… a single sensuous quaff … James Villas
He lifted his glass, took a large quaff of the wine, swallowed quickly in his urgency to keep talking.The Virginia Quarterly Review
Did you know?
Quaff and Slug
Nowadays, quaff has an old-fashioned, literary sound to it. For more contemporary words that suggest drinking a lot of something, especially in big gulps and in large quantity, you might try drain, pound, or slug. If you are a daintier drinker, you might say that you prefer to sip, imbibe or partake in the beverage of your choice. Quaff is by no means the oldest of these terms—earliest evidence of it in use is from the early 1500s, whereas sip dates to the 14th century—but it is the only one with the mysterious "origin unknown" etymology.
Verb We stopped at a bar and quaffed a few beers. after digging our car out of the snowdrift, we were ready to quaff some hot chocolate
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Since the ordinance changed in 1976, La Grange has become a popular destination for people from throughout the area to quaff adult beverages with their meals. Hank Beckman, Chicago Tribune, 6 Sep. 2022 Its medieval streets and winding canals have a distinct charm, while the Markt, the city's main square, is the perfect place to quaff a local Belgian beer and watch the world go by. Joe Minihane, CNN, 13 July 2022 That means folks will be donning the green, going to church, lining the route, and maybe sauntering to a neighborhood watering hole to hear music or quaff a pint. Marc Bona, cleveland, 28 Feb. 2022 Anxious Americans, or at least the ones who regularly quaff Coke Zero, will be the judge.BostonGlobe.com, 14 July 2021 Atlanta Braves backers quaff four drinks a game and spend $32. Marc Bona, cleveland, 23 Mar. 2021 Visitors can also take a seat near one of the heaters and try a mystery shot served in an ice glass, or quaff a tap beer. Elaine Rewolinski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 14 Jan. 2021 The food-shaming phenomenon isn’t unique to U.S. politics: The French have their gauche caviar (the caviar left) and the Brits their champagne socialists, or as they’re sometimes called, Bollinger Bolsheviks, a reference to a pricey, bubbly quaff.Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2019 Characters who are dead in one episode turn up in the next, cheerfully quaffing, wenching, or otherwise being very much not dead. Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 1 Jan. 2020 See More