Definition
In legal contexts, "drink" appears most often not as a standalone defined term but as a unit of measure or regulatory reference in statutes and cases governing the sale, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Its legal significance is largely quantitative: courts and regulatory bodies have at times been required to determine what constitutes a single "drink" for purposes of licensing, excise taxation, dram shop liability, and temperance legislation.
Bouvier's notes one concrete judicial definition: in the context of spirits, a "drink" was held to mean not more than a quart. This reflects the pre-Prohibition era understanding in certain licensing and sale contexts, where the term was used to define permissible quantities sold over a counter or in a licensed establishment.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To consume a liquid through the mouth; colloquially, to consume alcoholic beverages; to absorb or take in, whether literally or figuratively.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To swallow anything liquid for quenching thirst or other purposes; to imbibe; also to quaff intoxicating liquor.
The gap between common and legal meaning is one of precision and quantification. In ordinary speech, "a drink" is an informal and variable measure — a glass, a bottle, a sip. In legal contexts, particularly licensing and liability law, courts and legislatures have been forced to assign fixed quantities to the term. The Bouvier's entry illustrates this starkly: a quart of spirits as a single "drink" is entirely alien to modern common understanding, but made sense in a regulatory context defining minimum sale quantities in a licensed establishment.
Common Confusion
"Drink" should not be confused with "intoxicating liquor," "alcoholic beverage," or "spirituous liquor," all of which are separately defined terms in most licensing statutes. These statutory definitions control in any given jurisdiction and may or may not correspond to the informal use of "drink." A researcher encountering "drink" in a historical licensing case should resist importing modern assumptions about quantity or alcohol content.
Why It Matters in Research
The term "drink" is most legally significant in three research contexts:
First, historical licensing and temperance law. Pre-Prohibition statutes and cases frequently used "drink" as a regulated unit of sale. The Bouvier's entry — placing a quart as the upper bound for a single drink of spirits — reflects a world of dramshops, tavern regulations, and wholesale-retail distinctions that looked nothing like modern bar licensing. Researchers in 19th-century temperance or liquor licensing materials should treat "drink" as a term of art requiring period-specific definition, not a transparent quantity.
Second, dram shop and civil liability. Modern dram shop statutes impose liability on sellers who serve alcohol to visibly intoxicated persons or minors. In litigation under these statutes, the number and size of "drinks" served is a critical factual question bearing on causation and foreseeability. Expert testimony in these cases often relies on drink-size assumptions for blood alcohol calculations. Here, "drink" has a quasi-scientific meaning (typically standardized as approximately 14 grams of pure alcohol in U.S. public health contexts) that may conflict with what was actually poured.
Third, regulatory and public health law. The Safe Drinking Water Act and related environmental statutes use "drinking water" as a regulatory category, but "drink" itself in that context carries no special legal definition beyond its ordinary meaning. The regulatory weight falls on "public water system," "maximum contaminant level," and similar defined terms.
Corpus researchers should note that "drink" as a standalone legal term becomes nearly invisible after Prohibition and the rise of detailed statutory definitions for "alcoholic beverage" and its subcategories. Modern cases rarely litigate the meaning of "drink" itself — the action has moved to "standard drink" in administrative and public health guidance, and to specific beverage categories in licensing law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is notably sparse — a single citation standing for the proposition that a drink of spirits is not more than a quart. This likely reflects a licensing or sale-by-the-drink statute or case from the 19th century, where the definition was needed to distinguish retail sale (drinks sold on premises) from wholesale distribution. Bouvier's does not generalize beyond spirits, leaving beer and wine undefined by the entry.
What historical dictionaries collectively miss: the dramatic shift in assumed quantity. A quart as a single "drink" reflects the dramshop context of bulk counter sales, not personal consumption. Researchers should not treat this as a physiological or consumption-based definition. No historical legal dictionary appears to have developed a comprehensive definition of "drink" across beverage types or regulatory contexts — the term was treated as sufficiently understood in common usage except where quantity required judicial fixing.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Safe Drinking Water Act — Public Water Systems, MCLs, and Underground Injection (The Law Mind Environmental & Energy Law Encyclopedia): Relevant for researchers tracing federal regulation of drinking water quality, where "drinking water" is a regulatory category but "drink" itself carries no independent statutory definition.