Eggnog

//ˈɛɡ.nɑɡ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A beverage based on milk, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg; often made alcoholic with rum, brandy, or whisky; popular at Christmas. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a punch made of sweetened milk or cream mixed with eggs and usually alcoholic liquor wordnet

Example

More examples

"Eggnog is a creamy Christmas drink."

Etymology

American English c. 1775 (although drinks like it are attested far earlier, e.g. posset, of which a monastic Christmas recipe used eggs), from egg + nog. The second element is uncertain and long-debated; prominent claims include Norfolk dialect nog (“strong ale”), or a clipping of noggin (“small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol”) (q.v.). Another hypothesis is that it is a variant of grog (“rum-and-water cocktail”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.