Jump to content

mountain dew

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Mountain Dew

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

So called because it was often illicitly distilled in the mountains.

Noun

[edit]

mountain dew (uncountable)

  1. (Southern US, Ireland) Illegally distilled whiskey.
    • 1837 November, “Leistering Salmon by Torch-Light”, in New Sporting Magazine, volume XIII, number 79, page 310:
      [] and a big-bellied bottle of old whiskey — for there is nothing like mountain-dew taken internally for resisting the effects of night mists.
    • 1870s or 1870s, George Etell Sargent, The Story of a City Arab, Religious Tract Society, page 387.
      How they were employed was manifest from the strong perfume of tobacco and mountain dew (illicit whisky) which, striking upon me as I entered, almost overpowered my senses, []
  2. (Trinidad and Tobago) Illegally distilled rum.

Synonyms

[edit]