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I'm looking for a word that can describe a drink that someone bought you, for example, in return for doing a small favor for them. The word can be generic too, it does not have to refer only to drinks, it can refer to anything that someone else bought you.

For example, how could I make the following sentence shorter by replacing "bought by my friends" with a single adjective or noun?

Last Friday I spent a lot of money on drinks, even though many of them were (bought by my friends).

If there are no such adjectives/nouns in English, that's also a good answer to my question. I could not find any words with that meaning, but maybe I missed something.

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    If I buy you a drink, a meal, theatre ticket etc you can say "this one's on Weather Vane" or "this is on Weather Vane". If you did a favour for a bar, restaurant etc you can say "this was on the house". If you buy someone a drink you can say "this [one] is on me".
    – Weather Vane
    Jul 3, 2021 at 15:59
  • Thank you, that's useful to know too, but here I'm looking for a word that describes the drink itself, and without specifying who bought it.
    – user3738870
    Jul 3, 2021 at 16:09
  • If it is from a bar or restaurant, it is a complimentary drink, dessert, chocolate, free meal etc.
    – Weather Vane
    Jul 3, 2021 at 16:15
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    I don’t know of a term that fits your sentence perfectly, but you could say “my friends treated me to half of them” where treated means To provide with food, entertainment, or gifts at one's own expense
    – ColleenV
    Jul 7, 2021 at 14:24
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    @DanGetz As a pet owner, giving someone a treat is closely associated with training them to do something, so it didn’t occur to me :) “many of them were treats from my friends” still feels awkward to me. Treat as a noun without “my” makes me think of something extra tasty or extra special or a dog/cat snack, not something gifted.
    – ColleenV
    Jul 7, 2021 at 17:29

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There are a number of words you could use that mean the same as gift, but you would not normally talk about drinks bought for you by your frends as gifts or freebies.

There are some words that have a restriction in meaning, for example as noted in the comments you could receive complimentary drinks, sometimes referred to in the hospitality trade as comps, but you wouldn't use that for drinks bought by your friends.

In British English we would probably refer to the tradition of buying 'rounds' where typically a person buys a round of drinks, and your group of friends would take turns to buy a round. You might also refer to other phrases that relate to this concept.

For example you could say:

Last Friday I spent a lot of money on drinks, even though many of the rounds were not mine

or

Last Friday I spent a lot of money on drinks, even though I was not the only one getting them in

You could also use the phrase on me as pointed out in the comments in the same way, for example:

Last Friday I spent a lot of money on drinks, even though many of them were not on me

or

Last Friday I spent a lot of money on drinks, even though many of them were on my friends

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