molass

English

Etymology 1

Noun

molass (plural molasses)

1. Alternative form of molasse
   • 1883, S.F. Peckham, “Production, Technology, and Uses of Petroleum and its Products”, in House documents, volume 10, page 65:

     The limestone is accompanied by a molass or a sort of breccia, consisting of gravel of quartz and schistose rocks cemented with asphalt.

   • 1992, T. Schneider, Acidification Research: Evaluation and Policy Applications, page 451:

     The geological subsoil is either moraine and sandy molass or, rarely, clay-rich molass marl.

   • 1999, Scientia Geologica Sinica - Volume 8, page 5:

     In molass basins , the molass formations indicate the variations of strain strength similar to those in foreland fold-thrust belt.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from molasses.

Noun

molass (plural molasses)

1. A viscous byproduct of sugar production, raw molasses. Singular of molasses.
   • 1906, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional Papers - Volume 121, page 17:

     After a little time the molass is run out through an outlet made in the lower part of the apparatus.

   • 1994, Suez Canal Report, page 46:

     Northbound molass quantities that were conveyed through the Suez Canal amounted this year to 2 075 000 tons, against 1 950 000 tons in 1993, registering an increase of 125 000 tons, equal to 6.4%.

   • 2012, Steve Esomba, Global Tourism & the Environment, page 4:

     Molass quality depends on the maturity of the sugarcane or sugar beet, the amount of sugar extracted, and the method of extraction.

2. (India) A sweet hard candy made from molasses.
   • 2004, Raja Rao, The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi, page 19:

     "Perhaps you're right,” said Sudhama, “but give me please a handful of puffed rice and a piece of molass.”

   • 2007, Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero, page 71:

     Yet that was not the first molass stick I had tasted, for my mother had bought me molass sticks before.

3. (Scotland) Cheap whiskey made from molasses.
   • 1773, Robert Ferguson, The Poetical Works of Robert Ferguson, page 212:

     From peuking with porter no thirst can ensue, Not so, my dear knights, fares the ignorant ass Who drinks all the evening at burning molass.

   • 1813, George Bruce, Poems, Ballads and Songs on Various Occasions, page 24:

     The only guid molass has dune, Some drouthie wives it's sent hame soon; Which gars their dearies canty croon, The praise o' sugar whisky, O!

   • 1883, Metta Victoria Victor, A bad boy's diary, page 18:

     Gust then the bell rang an Betty brought papa a bill from the grosry for half a barel of molass witch Master George Hackett had turned the spigot, also a sute of cloes, a pound of dates, a ounce of cheeze.

   • 1908, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, “Royal Commission on Whiskey and Other Potable Spirits”, in Parliamentary Papers: 1850-1908, volume 58, page 240:

     Whiskey extracted from malt does not answer the purpose of making up compounds, cordials, and imitating foreign liquors so well as that extracted from sugar, molasses, raisins and cyder, as it has a particular flavour of its own, which nothing will overcome but a superabundance of the tincture of seeds, herbs, roots, spices, &c., that may be infused into it, which superabundance would make the flavour of the ingredients too strong, and, of course, disagreeable and harsh; wheras, if sugar, molass, raisin or cyder spirit, termed silent whiskey or whiskey without any particular of its own, were used, the flavour of the ingredients could be regulated according to taste without any difficulty.

   • 1994, John Ayto, A Gourmet's Guide: Food and Drink from A to Z, page 222:

     In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Scots had a drink which they called molass, a fierce rumlike spirit distilled from molasses.