mountain dew en · NOUN
Etymology
So called because it was often illicitly distilled in the mountains.
Meanings
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(Ireland, Southern-US, uncountable) Illegally distilled whiskey.
At last, says he, "Pray, sir, did you ivir dhrink any potyeen? any raal mountain-jew?" - "No," says Coo; "what's that, and where does it come from?" - "Oh! that's a sacret," said Jack, "but it's the right stuff; nivir believe me agin if it isn't fifty times better nor brandy or rum either. Biddy's brother jist sint me a prisent of a little dhrop, in exchange for some brandy, and as you're an ould frind o' the family, I kep it to thrate you wid."
1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 534:[…] and a big-bellied bottle of old whiskey — for there is nothing like mountain-dew taken internally for resisting the effects of night mists.
1837 November, “Leistering Salmon by Torch-Light”, in New Sporting Magazine, volume XIII, number 79, page 310:c. 1870s, George Etell Sargent, The Story of a City Arab, Religious Tract Society, page 387. How they were employed was manifest from the strong perfume of tobacco and mountain dew (illicit whisky) which, striking upon me as I entered, almost overpowered my senses, […]
- (Trinidad-and-Tobago, uncountable) Illegally distilled rum.
Synonyms
hooch (illegally distilled whiskey) · bootleg (illegally distilled whiskey) · white lightning (illegally distilled whiskey) · moonshine (illegally distilled whiskey) · poteen (illegally distilled whiskey)