hard cider
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hard cider
An Americanism dating back to 1780–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Beloved in colonial America, hard cider lost favor in the mid-19th century as crisp lagers ascended; the temperance movement and Prohibition felled cider-apple trees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
Van Buren, meanwhile, aimed to portray Harrison, a Virginian, as an unsophisticated “country squire” who lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider, Kraig said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2024
In 1840, supporters of Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison contrasted his rugged taste for hard cider with the champagne supposedly preferred by Democratic snob Martin Van Buren.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2022
The Martinelli family, immigrants from Switzerland, had been making hard cider in Watsonville, Calif., since 1868, but when the sale of alcohol became illegal in 1920, S. Martinelli & Company had to shelve that product.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2021
I played a game of whist with the sister-in-law, arguing all the while; and at nine o'clock the servant produced some hard cider, shellbarks, and apples.
From Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad During the War by Townsend, George Alfred
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
