liquor Hear it!

liquor Definition

liquor (lik′ər)

noun

  1. any liquid or juice meat liquor
  2. an alcoholic drink, esp. one made by distillation, as whiskey or rum
  3. Pharmacy a solution of some substance in water

Etymology: altered (infl. by L) < ME licour < OFr licor < L liquor, akin to liquere: see liquid

transitive verb, intransitive verb

Informal to drink or cause to drink alcoholic liquor, esp. to the point of intoxication: now usually with up

liquor Synonyms

liquor

n.

  1. Matter in liquid form

    water, drink, extract, potable, fluid, decoction, infusion, dissolvent, solvent; see also liquid.

  2. Strong alcoholic drink

    whiskey, booze*, alcohol*; see cocktail, drink 2.

liquor Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • intoxicate: Mind you there was hardly any drinking of intoxicating liquor.
  • ferment: Then the grapes were trodden, and the liquor fermented and allowed to settle for a couple of months.
  • distil: The strongest alcohol is an Estonian liquor distilled from potatoes at 98 % alcohol.
  • tan: This was done by man handling the hides through a row of pits filled with tanning liquor.
  • scrub: The dirty gas stream is passed through the packing material where it contacts with the scrubbing liquor.

Adjective modifier

  • spirituous: I am sorry to observe that " Dealer in foreign spirituous liquors " is by far the most frequent.
  • alcoholic: No alcoholic liquor may be sold on the premises except from the Bar opened by the Company.
  • distilled: In Goa, India, the cashew apple is the source of juicy pulp used to prepare fenny, a locally popular distilled liquor.
  • reserved: Cut into good portions and serve warm with any reserved cooking liquor.
  • cooking: Reduce the cooking liquor by boiling rapidly for several minutes.
  • radioactive: Separation leak There was a small leak of radioactive liquor in Sellafield's chemical separation plant last weekend.

Modifies a noun

  • licensing: Mine's a pint - new liquor licensing laws.
  • license: SEA was prepared to oppose a liquor license appeal that had been referred to the County Court.
  • license: Alcohol Do they have a liquor license to purchase alcohol?
  • store: Your father owns a liquor store - make a movie about a liquor store.

Noun used with modifier

  • scrubber: The solution contains an industrial waste product derived from pollution scrubber liquor from factory chimneys in the phosphate fertilizer industry.
  • malt: Perry tells me that Mr. Cole never touches malt liquor.
  • silage: Never pollute watercourses with silage liquor, slurry, fertilizers or pesticides.
  • cocoa: The nibs are then milled to create cocoa liquor.
  • cooking: Strain the mussel cooking liquor into the fish stock.
liquor Quotes

Gamp would certainly have drunk its little shoes right off its feet, as with our precious boy he did, and arterwards send the child a errand to sell his wooden leg for any money it 'ud fetch as matches in the rough, and bring it home in liquor.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

A bumper of good liquor, Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge or vicar.

—Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

Let school-masters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

—Goldsmith, Oliver

The lads in their hundredsto Ludlowcome in for the fair, There'smen fromthe barn and the forge and themill and the fold, The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there, And there with the rest are lads that will never be old.

—Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)

What marriage is to morality, a properly conducted licensed liquor traffic is to sobriety.

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero [smiling] must drink brandy.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an'death's the other.

—Williams,TennesseeThomas Lanier

Candy Is dandy But liquor Is quicker.

—Nash, (Frederic) Ogden

  The only time it isn't good for you is when you write or when you fight.You have to do that cold.But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief. 394

—Hemingway, Ernest Millar

Liquor is not a necessity. It is a means of momentarily sidestepping necessity.

—Fadiman, Clifton

Say, for what were hop-yards meant, Or why was Burton built onTrent? Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man. Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows whom it hurts to think.

—Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)

   As he drew near, he gazed upon the gate Ne'er to be entered more by him or Sin, With such a glance of supernatural hate, As made Saint Peter wish himself within; He pattered with his keys at a great rate, And sweated through his apostolic skin: Of course his perspiration was but ichor, Or some such other spiritual liquor.

—Rochdale

Like giving the keys of the world's largest liquor storetoa confirmed alcoholic.

—Ball, GeorgeWildman