four-ale

English

Noun

four-ale (countable and uncountable, plural four-ales)

1. (obsolete) A cheap ale, sold at fourpence per quart
   • 1867, “Bill Bank's Day Out”, in Andrew Halliday, editor, The Savage-Club Papers, page 217:

     I ain't going to have him a-coming here any more asking me to go for his dirty pots of four-ale and screws of tobacco […]

   • 1888 October 13, “Adulteration”, in texts Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art, volume 66, number 1720, page 435:

     […] some of the mixture known to the working-man as "four ale," and obtained in the same locality as the porter.

2. (obsolete) Ellipsis of four-ale bar.