spruce beer

noun

a fermented beverage made with spruce leaves and twigs, or an extract from them.

Nearby words

sprog, sprout, spruance, spruance, raymond ames, spruce, spruce beer, spruce beetle, spruce budworm, spruce gall aphid, spruce grouse, spruce pine

Origin of spruce beer

First recorded in 1490–1500

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

Examples from the Web for spruce beer

Barrels of cider and spruce-beer are running freely into the wooden canteens of the soldiers.
Old News|Nathaniel Hawthorne
On this last signal, a whole cloud of spruce-beer sellers started fiercely from under the piazzas.
Tom Cringle's Log|Michael Scott
The spruce-beer of America is generally made from the young shoots of this tree.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4|Various
At Washington we dined, and I drank some spruce-beer (for the first time in my life), and I found myself very unwell from it.
Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume X|Various

In two minutes, however, he relented in his own favour; and muttering something about spruce-beer, walked off.
Emma|Jane Austen

British Dictionary definitions for spruce beer

spruce beer

noun

an alcoholic drink made of fermented molasses flavoured with spruce twigs and cones

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

spruce beer

noun

RELATED CONTENT

Nearby words

Origin of spruce beer

Examples from the Web for spruce beer

British Dictionary definitions for spruce beer

spruce beer

noun