noun Informal smuggled or illicitly distilled liquor, especially corn liquor as illicitly distilled chiefly in rural areas of the southern U.S.
empty or foolish talk, ideas, etc.; nonsense.
the light of the moon; moonlight.
Origin of moonshine 1375–1425; late Middle English: moonlight. See
moon ,
shine1 ,
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for moonshine Contemporary Examples of moonshine He wrote a few more paperback originals, two of them westerns, then sold The Moonshine War to Doubleday in hardcover.
Gambling, girls; you could buy a pint of moonshine for a dime, store-bought whiskey for a quarter.
Daryl, insulted, smashes it to bits and finds her moonshine instead.
Historical Examples of moonshine Seaward from palace-haunts, in the moonshine glistened and darkened.
And the bridges are not of iron and concrete, but of rainbows and––moonshine !
The high road, whitened by the moonshine , stretched far into the distance.
It means just moonshine and mush and lookin' into each other's eyes, that's about all.
I don't suppose they have been able to check the making of moonshine —that is, not to any extent?
British Dictionary definitions for moonshine noun US and Canadian illegally distilled or smuggled whisky or other spirit
foolish talk or thought
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for moonshine n. c.1500, "moonlight," from moon (n.) + shine (n.). In figurative use, implying "appearance without substance," from late 15c.; perhaps connected in that sense with notion of "moonshine in water" (cf. moonraker ). Meaning "illicit liquor" is attested from 1785 (earliest reference is to that smuggled on the coasts of Kent and Sussex); moonlight also occasionally was used in this sense early 19c. As a verb from 1883. Related: Moonshiner (1860).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
