bathtub gin

American  

noun

Informal.

1. homemade gin, especially gin made illegally during Prohibition.

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Etymology

Origin of bathtub gin

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

At 90 minutes, that night is brief, maybe too brief, and feels less like an immersive soak in Prohibition New York than a slug of bathtub gin.

From New York Times • Nov. 2, 2021

But if social media are any gauge , dancing at home is the coronavirus pandemic’s bathtub gin.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2020

Churchwell fills out her account with amusing period paraphernalia, such as Fitzgerald's recipe for bathtub gin, or a list of the era's new terminology: "cool", "slick", "mass media", "ritzy", "merchant bank".

From The Guardian • Jun. 29, 2013

To the surprise of those who thought Strip per Sally had gone out with bathtub gin, she seemed to have changed hardly at all.

From Time Magazine Archive

It bears the date and the outdatedness of the '20s, along with such storied fossils as bathtub gin, the Black Bottom and the Stutz Bearcat.

From Time Magazine Archive