The kanji 飲 primarily means "to drink" or "to swallow." It conveys the action of taking a liquid into one's body, typically through the mouth. This can encompass a variety of beverages and the act of consuming them. It also carries the broader sense of ingesting or taking something in.

・On-yomi (音読み): イン (in) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): の飲む (nomu - to drink)

⚫︎お酒を飲みますか？ Translation: Do you drink alcohol? ⚫︎水飲んでください。 Translation: Please drink water. ⚫︎彼はコーヒーを飲みました。 Translation: He drank coffee.

The kanji 飲 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字 - keisei moji). The left side is a radical (偏 - hen) which is 口 (kuchi - mouth), indicating it has something to do with the mouth or oral intake. The right side is a phonetic component (音符 - onpu), which is 欠 (ketsu), a character that once represented "to lack" or "to be missing". The combination of these parts suggests that "to drink" is filling up something, and the character thus represents the action of taking something liquid into one's mouth.