"eat, drink and be merry" meaning in English

See eat, drink and be merry in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: A reference to Ecclesiastes 8:15: "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry". Head templates: {{en-proverb}} eat, drink and be merry
  1. Enjoy yourself; forget your cares; do not worry. Related terms: eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to Ecclesiastes 8:15: \"Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "eat, drink and be merry",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated triples",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English imperative sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Drinking",
          "orig": "en:Drinking",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Happiness",
          "orig": "en:Happiness",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              33,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1879, “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry”, in University Chronicle, volume 10, page 101:",
          "text": "And if you do not put the motto \"Eat, drink, and be merry,\" above your dining-room door, fix it in your mind, and put it into practice. Laugh, talk, and crack jokes at the table, and thereby heal an injured body.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              30,
              54
            ],
            [
              126,
              150
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1880, William Young Fullerton, Waymarks for wanderers: 5 addresses, page 122:",
          "text": "He says his motto is ' Let us eat, drink, and be merry.' Just so, young man : my motto is exactly the same as yours, ' Let us eat, drink, and be merry.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              44,
              67
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1995, V. R. Taneja, Educational Thought And Practice, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "Life is not all bread and butter. It is not eat, drink and be merry. It is much more.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              99,
              122
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          ],
          "ref": "2015, Adrian Breeden, Time Grooves and Travel Records, →ISBN, page 556:",
          "text": "Our days here were spent visiting beaches and resting under huge parasols to hide from the sun and eat, drink and be merry while occasionally joining the children to bathe in the warm, grey sea.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Enjoy yourself; forget your cares; do not worry."
      ],
      "id": "en-eat,_drink_and_be_merry-en-proverb-8i1-qpRP",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "eat, drink and be merry"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to Ecclesiastes 8:15: \"Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "eat, drink and be merry",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English coordinated triples",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English imperative sentences",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms derived from the Bible",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Drinking",
        "en:Happiness"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              33,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1879, “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry”, in University Chronicle, volume 10, page 101:",
          "text": "And if you do not put the motto \"Eat, drink, and be merry,\" above your dining-room door, fix it in your mind, and put it into practice. Laugh, talk, and crack jokes at the table, and thereby heal an injured body.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              30,
              54
            ],
            [
              126,
              150
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1880, William Young Fullerton, Waymarks for wanderers: 5 addresses, page 122:",
          "text": "He says his motto is ' Let us eat, drink, and be merry.' Just so, young man : my motto is exactly the same as yours, ' Let us eat, drink, and be merry.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              44,
              67
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1995, V. R. Taneja, Educational Thought And Practice, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "Life is not all bread and butter. It is not eat, drink and be merry. It is much more.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              99,
              122
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2015, Adrian Breeden, Time Grooves and Travel Records, →ISBN, page 556:",
          "text": "Our days here were spent visiting beaches and resting under huge parasols to hide from the sun and eat, drink and be merry while occasionally joining the children to bathe in the warm, grey sea.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Enjoy yourself; forget your cares; do not worry."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "eat, drink and be merry"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (142890b and 1d3fdbf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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