white mule

noun

Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.

1. moonshine.

Word History and Origins

Origin of white mule¹

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30

Example Sentences

Instead you used a code word such as “coffee varnish” or “white mule” or “horse liniment” or “monkey rum” or “panther sweat” or “rot gut” or “tarantula juice” when ordering your drink.

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“When I was a kid, I saw a movie and the general in the movie was riding a white mule. When it came time to get something to ride, I said, ‘I don’t want to get a horse.

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Insisting that she needed to drain the flask before the authorities caught her—it was a year into nationwide Prohibition—she offered the guests a swig of what she called the best white mule.

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Journalist Chuck Cecil’s book about prohibition, “Astride the White Mule,” described the 1927 ambush as “the most abhorrent occurrence during the state’s long prohibition era,” one that turned the state against a continued alcohol ban.

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Patrons were inside the White Mule Saloon that shares the building, but all were able to safely escape.

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