what is a bender

This slang term can mean a drug party, an extended period of continued drug use. An alcoholic bender is a multiple-day drinking spree during which the person does not eat and gets very little sleep. If you’re on a bender, you might pass out for a short time, wake up and start drinking again.

A bender does not refer to one evening of intoxication. It refers to a drinking spree that is extended over at least two nights.

But some definitions insist that in order to be a true bender, the drinking spree has to last at least three days.

Because a weekend is two days and there are many drinkers who drink all weekend. Going that third day, and possibly missing a work or school day, makes the drinking spree a self-destructive bender, rather than just another lost weekend.

During a bender, the drinker typically begins drinking as soon as he wakes up, continues drinking until he passes out again, then wakes up and repeats the cycle.

The origin of the use of the term “bender” to refer to an extended bout of drinking alcohol is not certain. Some historians think it may refer to the act of bending one’s elbow to take a drink, while others believe it is associated with the phrase “getting bent out of shape.”