poteen
Americannoun
-
the first distillation of a fermented mash in the making of whiskey.
-
illicitly distilled whiskey.
noun
Etymology
Origin of poteen
1805–15; < Irish poitín literally, small pot, diminutive of pota pot 1
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.
When barley and potato prices rose during and after World War II, the poteen industry languished.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet the special charm of this book is that it manages to describe Irish peasant life without condescension or that peculiar quaintness which often produces a distinct aroma of poteen and formaldehyde.
From Time Magazine Archive
But for the next 50 years Ireland kept passing out literary surprises, for first-rate writers came along as fast as poteen at a christening: Russell, Synge, Gogarty, O'Casey, Joyce, O'Flaherty.
From Time Magazine Archive
Take our prog—take even our poteen, if you will; but leave us our Penates; this theft, which embodies the antithesis of Shakspeare, is not only “trash,” but “naught enriches them, and makes us poor indeed.”
From Nuts and Nutcrackers by Lever, Charles James
I'd give you two kids for your dinner, and a gallon of poteen, and I'd call the piper on the long car to your wedding from Crossmolina or from Ballina.
From The Playboy of the Western World by Synge, J. M. (John Millington)
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.
