Is buying a girl a drink at a pub a 'date'?

The boring answer is, it depends. I had the most unbelievably awkward version of this when i was doing a language conversation exchange with an Italian woman about 10 years ago. The cafe we agreed to meet in was full so we wandered around for about 15 mins looking for an alternative and then in desperstion i suggested maybe a pub instead. Mistake 1. Mistake 2 came when, instead of a soft drink i ordered a Guinness by default and asked if she wanted a drink too. She asked for a beer too but i could immeadiatly sense some discomfort. I should have suggested we leave then, in hindsight. We sat down but she was still clearly a bit uncomfortable with the set up but with two full pints on the table i didnt know whether to find some way to suggest we just leave the pub without drinking them, or else set to work trying to convince her i wasnt trying to hit on her using my terrible Italian. I tried to make the conversation exchange about my girlfiend as much as possible but my Italian prob wasnt as good as it should for a convo exchange and her English wasnt anywhere near the level she'd said it waa, and it turned out she only arrived in the UK two days earlier. Desperate to end the discomfort, i basically necked my drink, which i realise now probably wasnt the most reassuring approach. She said she didnt like hers and left it. After 15 mins broken conversation punctured by awkward silences i suggested we wrap it up. Two days later she messaged me saying it was nice to meet me but she wasnt ready to date and that we should stay friends. I was absolutely mortified at the mix up. She made clear that it would all have been fine until the moment i bought her a drink - at which point she's considered it a date. I apologised and explained that i'm really sorry but i hadnt realised that. The air cleared, we ended up carrying on our language exchange and became good mates. She even came to my wedding two years ago.