julep

[joo-lip]

noun

mint julep.

a sweet drink, variously prepared and sometimes medicated.

Origin of julep

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Arabic julāb < Persian gulāb, equivalent to gul rose + āb water

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for julep

Historical Examples of julep

Champney moistened his dry lips with the julep and uttered a nervous laugh.
Sally Dows and Other Stories
Bret Harte
Stephen drank that julep with reverence, and then the Colonel gave him a cigar.
The Crisis, Complete
Winston Churchill
"No, he had some words, I had a julep," and the colonel smiled grimly.
Kennedy Square
F. Hopkinson Smith
I know what you mean, but you've made this julep too strong.
The Seven Darlings
Gouverneur Morris
What I send you, may perhaps seem bitter, yet it is wholesome; your best physic is not a julep; sweet sauces leave rotten bodies.
The Mermaid Series. Edited by H. Ellis. The best plays of the old dramatists. Thomas Dekker. Edited, with an introduction and notes by Ernest Rhys.
Thomas Dekker

British Dictionary definitions for julep

julep

noun

a sweet drink, variously prepared and sometimes medicated

mainly US short for mint julep

Word Origin for julep

C14: from Old French, from Arabic julāb, from Persian gulāb rose water, from gul rose + āb water

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for julep

late 14c., a syrupy drink in which medicine was given, from Old French julep (14c.), from Medieval Latin julapium, from Arabic julab, from Persian gulab "rose water," from gul "rose" (related to Greek rhodon, Latin rosa) + ab "water," from PIE root *ap- (see water (n.1)). Sense of "alcoholic drink flavored with mint" is first recorded 1787, American English.