Dictionary-Definition.com :: DRAM definition

Definition of 'dram'

noun

A unit of apothecary weight equal to an eighth of an ounce or to 60 grains [syn: dram, drachm, drachma]

noun

1/16 ounce or 1.771 grams

noun

The basic unit of money in Armenia

From: GCIDE

From: GCIDE

Dram \Dram\, v. i. & t. To drink drams; to ply with drams. [Low] --Johnson. --Thackeray. [1913 Webster] DRAM

From: GCIDE

Dram \Dram\ (dr[a^]m), n. [OF. drame, F. drachme, L. drachma, drachm, drachma, fr. Gr. drachmh`, prop., a handful, fr. dra`ssesqai to grasp. Cf. Drachm, Drachma.]
1. A weight; in Apothecaries' weight, one eighth part of an ounce, or sixty grains; in Avoirdupois weight, one sixteenth part of an ounce, or 27.34375 grains. [1913 Webster]
2. A minute quantity; a mite. [1913 Webster]
Were I the chooser, a dram of well-doing should be preferred before many times as mush the forcible hindrance of evildoing. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
3. As much spirituous liquor as is usually drunk at once; as, a dram of brandy; hence, a potation or potion; as, a dram of poison. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
4. (Numis.) A Persian daric. --Ezra ii. 69. [1913 Webster]
Fluid dram, or Fluid drachm. See under Fluid. [1913 Webster]

Dram The Authorized Version understood the word 'adarkonim (1 Chr. 29:7; Ezra 8:27), and the similar word darkomnim (Ezra 2:69; Neh. 7:70), as equivalent to the Greek silver coin the drachma. But the Revised Version rightly regards it as the Greek dareikos, a Persian gold coin (the daric) of the value of about 1 pound, 2s., which was first struck by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and was current in Western Asia long after the fall of the Persian empire. (See DARIC.)