Meaning

Primary

Boozer

Alternative

Drunkard

Word Type

noun

Explanation

We have alcohol and the noun form of 飲む (to drink). So you know this has to do with drinking alcohol. It means a boozer or a drunkard, someone who drinks a lot of alcohol!

酒飲み literally means "alcohol drinker," and it usually implies that the person consumes a lot of alcohol. This is a casual word and it can sound playful (like teasing a friend) or mildly critical depending on the situation and tone.

Reading

さけのみ
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

The readings are the vocab words お酒 and 飲む combined together into one. You can guess it's a kun'yomi reading because of the on the end of , which should make you think back to vocab words that use the kun'yomi readings for these kanji. If you can do that, you can read this word (and many others, probably)!

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • 酒飲みのおじさん

    middle-aged alcoholic man

    酒飲みの人

    an alcoholic person

    酒飲みの気持ち

    an alcoholic's feelings

Context Sentences

私の父親も酒飲みなんですよ。

My father is also a boozer.

コウイチはお酒は好きだけど、酒飲みってほどじゃあないですよ。

Koichi likes drinking, but he isn't like an alcoholic.

彼は大酒飲みだが、赤ワインが苦手だ。

He's a heavy drinker but he doesn't like red wine.

Kanji Composition