wassail
Plural: wassails
Noun
- a punch made of sweetened ale or wine heated with spices and roasted apples; especially at Christmas
- A toast to health, usually on a festive occasion.
- The beverage served during a wassail, especially one made of ale or wine flavoured with spices, sugar, roasted apples, etc.
- Revelry.
- A festive or drinking song or glee.
Verb
Verb Forms: wassailed, wassailing, wassails
- To drink to the health of someone or something; to make merry.
- celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities
- propose a toast to
- To toast, to drink to the health of another.
- To drink wassail.
- To go from house to house at Christmastime, singing carols.
Examples
- The next morning he much regretted the gusto with which he had wassailed the night before.
- They would wassail the victor of the Scrabble tournament with a celebratory drink.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English wassail, from Old Norse ves heill (“be healthy!”), from the imperative of vesa (“to be”) + heill (“healthy”). The earliest documented use of the term is from the first part of the 12th century CE, in Geoffroy of Monmounth's Historia Regum Britanniae (see page's citations).
Synonyms
drink, jollify, make happy, make merry, make whoopie, pledge, racket, revel, salute, toast, whoop it up, carol
Scrabble Score: 10
wassail: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordwassail: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wassail: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary