student asking question

Does “drink” always mean “alcohol”?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Drink" here refers to any alcoholic drink. But "drink" doesn't always mean an alcoholic drink. If you're at the beach on a hot day and you say to your friend, "Let's go up to the boardwalk and get a drink," you're not insinuating anything alcohol-related. Drinking alcohol in the hot sun is no fun. If you're saying "Let's go get some drink." in front of the water fountain after outdoor exercise, that is very context-specific and "drink" here doesn't mean alcoholic drink either. So it is largely context-specific and should be easily identifiable in most situations.

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