> as lemmas

1622 H. Peacham Compl. Gentleman xv. 187 We reade also of a certaine King of the Gothes, who making his Souldiers his drinking companions, was for his free and kind heart at the last drowned by them in a Tub of Ale.

1727 E. Mayhew Indian Converts ii. 124 He from this time forward forsook his Drunkenness, and all his drinking Companions, and lived soberly.

1839 J. Collinson Crack Club No. 6. 65 He had spent a great part of the morning in the public-house with one of his drinking companions.

1941 H. L. Mencken Diary 3 Nov. (1989) 170 A rummy old Episcopal rector who had been one of the drinking companions of my grandfather Mencken.

2011 M. Ellis Princes Gate ii. 15 Drinking too much..was hard to avoid if your principal, indeed only, drinking companion was someone..who could..put six or seven pints away without batting an eyelid.