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Moonshine

//ˈmuːnʃaɪn// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The light of the moon. countable, literally, uncountable

    "[…] her Waggon Spokes made of long Spinners legs: the Couer of the wings of Graſhoppers, her Traces of the ſmalleſt Spiders web, her coullers of the Moonſhines watry Beames […]"

  2. 2
    whiskey illegally distilled from a corn mash wordnet
  3. 3
    High-proof alcohol (especially whiskey) that is often, but not always, produced illegally. countable, informal, uncountable

    "They watered down the moonshine."

  4. 4
    the light of the Moon wordnet
  5. 5
    Smuggled spirits, often with a specific sense; (Kent, Sussex) white brandy; (Yorkshire) gin. UK, archaic, countable, dialectal, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    Nonsense. informal, uncountable

    "He was talking moonshine."

  2. 7
    A branch of pure mathematics relating the Monster group to an invariant of elliptic functions. uncountable
  3. 8
    A spiced dish of eggs and fried onions. US, countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    A month. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "[…] wherefore ſhould I / Stand in the plague of cuſtome, and permit / The curioſity of Nations to depriue me? / For that I am ſome twelue, or fourteene Moonſhines / Lag of a brother?"

Verb
  1. 1
    To make homemade (especially, illicit) alcohol, especially distilled spirits. intransitive

    "His grandfather started to moonshine when things got really bad in 1933; when he got caught moonshining, he did a bit of time."

  2. 2
    distill (alcohol) illegally; produce moonshine wordnet
  3. 3
    To make (an ingredient) into such a drink. transitive

    "A more practical critic notes that paleolithic man had a very sweet tooth, which he sated with honey. Worse, he moonshined the honey into metheglin, an alcoholic brew. Booze and junk food, in other words, are hardly modern inventions."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English mone schyne, mone-schyne, moone shone; equivalent to moon + shine. Illegally distilled liquor is so named because its manufacture may be conducted without artificial light at night. The verb sense is a back-formation from moonshiner.

Etymology 2

From Middle English mone schyne, mone-schyne, moone shone; equivalent to moon + shine. Illegally distilled liquor is so named because its manufacture may be conducted without artificial light at night. The verb sense is a back-formation from moonshiner.

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