rotgut

[rot-guht]

noun

Slang.

1. cheap and inferior liquor.

rotgut

/ ˈrɒtˌɡʌt /

noun

1. facetious,  alcoholic drink, esp spirits, of inferior quality

Word History and Origins

Origin of rotgut¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; rot + gut

Example Sentences

I was sitting at my desk worrying my way through a glass of rotgut whiskey.

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But I prefer to believe that arrack is simply the sound one makes when one chokes down a shot of harsh home-brewed rotgut, and therefore it applies to any ingredients equally well.

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Seventeenth-century British soldiers, fighting in the Low Countries, showed a sweet tooth for the local rotgut, and the word “gin” derives from jenever, the Dutch for juniper.

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Not the mummified ones you might find soaking in the bottoms of rotgut mezcal bottles — originally placed there as a marketing scheme to sell cheap liquor — but the ones you order on purpose, as dinner.

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There will be rotgut whiskey and weary horses.

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Related Words

• booze 
• drink 
• ethanol 
• liquor 
• methanol 
• smoke