http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50181371?...5. An assurance of allegiance or goodwill to a person, cause, etc., confirmed by drinking;
the drinking of a health to a person, party, or cause; a toast.
Now rare (arch. or hist. in later use).1594 T. LODGE & R. GREENE Looking Glasse sig. Hv, Let come my Lord, Iack scincker fil it full, A pledge vnto the health of heauenly Aluida. 1598 J. FLORIO Worlde of Wordes, Propina, a drinking, a health or a pledge to one. 1635 T. HEYWOOD Philocothonista 12 Calistenes..[when] the King offered him a deepe quaffing-bowle, which he modestly refused,..said aloud. I desire not, Oh Alexander, to receive a pledge from thee; by taking which, I shall be presently inforced to inquire for a Physition. 1747 LADY M. W. MONTAGU St. James's Coffee-house in Six Town Eclogues ii, A certain Duke one night my health begun; With chearful pledges round the room it run. 1819 SCOTT Ivanhoe I. xiv. 295 But no man ventured directly to gainsay a pledge filled to the health of the reigning monarch. 1890 ‘M. FIELD’ Tragic Mary IV. ii. 161 To her health and to the blest Conjunction of these realms we drink. A pledge! 1919 H. E. KREHBIEL Bk. Operas II. vi, Faust drinks a pledge to the vision [of Mephistopheles], which fades away.
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http://germazope.uni-trier.de/Projects/WBB/wo...TAFELSPRUCH, m. was trinkspruch:
pelotons von tafelsprüchen
schlugen knatternd an dein ohr!
http://germazope.uni-trier.de/Projects/WBB/wo...trinkruf, m., so viel wie trinkspruch: der landrat, herr von Busch, hält die grosze rede auf das hochzeitspaar. auch Garve spricht, und dann folgt ein trinkruf dem andern LUDW. TÜGEL sankt Blehk (1934) 161. --
FREILIGRATH (1870) 3, 22.
