bathtub gin

noun

Informal.

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathtub gin¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

The decline in alcohol quality due to rampant bootlegging forced bartenders to mask the harsh flavors of bathtub gin and moonshine.

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You might guess bathtub gin or home-brewed beer.

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Downing homemade hooch and bathtub gin, they also turned to smugglers who sold them rum, brandy, and other drinks.

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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.

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Spiegelman saw March’s work as a memento of a different age: “His generation swilled bathtub gin and had a wild party. Our generation gulps Prozac,” he wrote in his introduction.

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