Is there any difference between "pour drinks" and "pour out drinks"?

Question

Could you tell me if there is any difference between pour drinks and pour out drinks? For example:

Could you pour (out) drinks while I serve the snacks

Answer 1

When hosting a dinner party you pour drinks for your guests.

After your guests leave, you pour out the liquid in the drinking glasses before placing them in the dishwasher.

Pour drinks generally means to fill up the glass. Pour out drinks generally means to empty unconsumed liquid from drinking glasses.

One would not say pour out drinks if they were filling glasses.

Serve out is not something that is said.

Answer 2

It's the same concept as the difference between throw and throw out:

I threw the ball.

The ball went through the air and is now some distance from me.

I threw out the ball.

The ball is now in the trash.

Pour out typically means you are discarding a liquid, typically by pouring it down the drain or on the ground.

Pour out can also less commonly be used to mean "pour as part of preparation", e.g. Pour out six cups of sugar for the cakes.

Answer 3

As a NZ English speaker, I'd understand "pour out" to mean "tip out" or "dispose of".

But there's a less common meaning where staff or hosts "pour out" drinks and line them up for collection. For example:

Confusing? Yes, but the circumstances should tell you what is meant.

Answer 4

• She poured out the drinks for her guests
  She poured drinks for her guests

In that example above, both versions make perfect sense and mean that drinks were served. Note the article “the“ which precedes "drinks" in the first version.

Under “pour”, Lexico's entry says

pour

1.1 [with object and adverbial of direction] Cause (a liquid) to flow from a container in a steady stream.

• ‘she poured a little whisky into a glass’
  ‘Mats are provided, food is served upon plates and drink is poured into cups.’

1.2 [with object] Prepare and serve (a drink)

• ‘he poured a cup of coffee’
  ‘Harry poured her a drink’
  ‘Guests poured their own drinks, wrote their own bills and enjoyed great food and live jazz sessions.’

Googling “pour out the drinks”, produced the following quotes:

1. Then, sit back, pour out the drinks, and sample the delights of Tapas - Spanish-style.
_{Quick and Easy Tapas by Silvana Franco}

In a Tweet by the makers of Heineken,

2. Half time! Let's pour out the drinks and get ready to #ChampionTheMatch #MCFCB

From a book entitled Barcraft: Bar and Alcoholic Beverage Service

3. […] a round of drinks to be repeated, always check that you have remembered it correctly or ask for the order to be repeated before you start to pour out the drinks.

4. As you poured out the drinks for me
   I felt your hooks sink right into me
   And I knew you were my destiny
   _{Already Over Me composed by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger}

5. Bill had poured out the drinks. “That's an awfully big shot,” Nick said. “Not for us, Wemedge,” Bill said. “What'll we drink to?” Nick asked, holding up the glass.
   _{The Three Day Blow by Ernest Hemingway}

6. She looked at him curiously before smiling and pouring out the drinks. “Can I have five tequila shots as well,” Simon then added, in a deadpan voice.
   _{Baring All Down Under: The East Coast Road Trip}

7. While he was pouring out the drinks, he spoke to him. “I hope you don't think I'm rude for asking, but do you come from West Africa?'
   _{Valley of Diamonds}

“pouring out glasses” reveals

1. Behind the counter, two waiters with a piece of chalk behind their ear were busy pouring out glasses of wine from the neighboring wineries.

2. The bars are full of people drinking what can only be described as the worst beer to hit the taps since people started pouring out glasses of Bud Light in 1876.

3. Tired of wasting your time on pouring out glasses of water again and again?

4. That first year, Logan and I raised $600 pouring out glasses of lemonade to thirsty ministers.

“poured the [something] out”

1. When we opened the flask and poured the drinks out they were still ice cold, as if they had just been pulled out of the fridge!

2. Using a tap the employee poured the wine out of a tap from a keg and into a growler, which Clements thought was a pretty cool concept.

3. "Yes." I immediately took up the decanter (which was on the table,) in my right hand, and the glass in my left - I poured the wine out, and handed it over to him, keeping my eye on the glass to avoid spilling it; he had approached nearer the table and nearer to me. I was leaning over the table, handing the glass towards him;

4. "You couldn't have poured the beer out of the glass faster than he drank it."

In none of the cited examples above does “pour out” mean to throw away liquid or to pay homage to a dead person. It's all about context. English is a very flexible language and the OP, and other learners too, need to realise there is rarely one ‘correct’ way to express anything, there can be several different ways of saying the same thing.

Answer 5

I would say that 'pour drinks' and 'pour out' have slightly different usages. 'Pour drinks' has a more specific sense of serving somebody a beverage by pouring a drink into their glass. 'Pour out' is a more generic phrase for pouring any liquid out of a container. It is often seen in the form 'pour ... out'. Examples:

Please pour drinks for the guests every 20 minutes.

I poured the paint out into the tray and prepared the brush.

Answer 6

In addition to all of these good answers I have noticed the term "pour one out for XXX" in a lot of American movies, where a toast is made to a dead person, sometimes accompanied with pouring a drink onto the ground and/or grave of a deceased person. I don't recall where I heard it, but you can see it in Grosse Pointe Blank, etc.