branch water

noun

1. water in or from a branch, creek, stream, etc.; pure, natural water.

2. Also called branch. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.,  (in a drink, highball, etc.) plain water as distinguished from soda water, ginger ale, or the like; ordinary water.

Word History and Origins

Origin of branch water¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

The adult finds a Kentucky bourbon with value, neat or with branch water.

Read more on New York Times

Take the mixers: Brown says that he's having limestone-rich branch water shipped in from Kentucky, and Speyside mineral water shipped from Scotland.

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Boyd, another native Kentuckian, is drinking it neat here, rather than with a splash of branch water.

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You weren’t supposed to drink it—people said you could get chills and fevers, by which they meant malaria, from drinking branch water—but it looked clean enough to drink.

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Before these three rode away, I said, aside to Jim, who was one of them, 'Don't bother about any whiskey; branch water is plenty nourishing for the wounded.

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