This term denotes social gatherings centered on drinking, typically wine, often to excess. In 1 Peter 4:3, it appears in a catalog of Gentile vices that believers have left behind. These weren't moderate social occasions but events characterized by drunkenness and the behaviors that accompany it. Ancient symposia could be refined literary gatherings, but the term here suggests excess and moral looseness, part of the pagan lifestyle incompatible with Christian holiness.