DictionaryAI

liquor

USLIK-er/ˈlɪk.ɚ/UKLIK-uh/ˈlɪk.ə(ɹ)/

Pluralliquors

Verbliquors, liquoring, liquored

10 meanings of liquor

Practice

  1. 1
    strong alcoholnounAustraliaCanadaUScountable or uncountable
    Strong alcohol produced by distilling a fermented liquid; in a wider sense, any drink containing alcohol.

    He never touches liquor, but he'll have a glass of wine with dinner.

    The hotel bar stocks dozens of imported liquors behind the counter.

    Similarspirits

    Note

    In American, Canadian and Australian English this is the everyday word for strong drink, as in a liquor store, and hard liquor stresses the distilled kind. British English usually calls the same drinks spirits.

  2. 2
    cooking juicesnoununcountable
    The liquid produced by cooking meat, vegetables, or both.

    Strain the liquor from the braised beef and boil it down into a sauce.

    The collards simmered for hours, and the liquor at the bottom of the pot was the best part.

    Similarstock, broth, bouillon

  3. 3
    steeping liquidnoununcountable
    A liquid in which something has been left to soak.

    Add the dried mushrooms to the pan along with their soaking liquor.

    Tea tasters judge the color of the liquor as well as its flavor.

    Similarliquid, infusion

  4. 4
    drink heavilyverbintransitive
    To consume alcoholic drink, typically to the point of drinking too much.

    Fans liquor up in the parking lot for hours before kickoff.

    Half the wedding guests had liquored up before the toasts even started.

    Similarbooze, drink

  5. 5
    make drunkverbtransitive
    To ply someone with alcohol, typically until they have drunk too much.

    The con man liked to liquor his marks up before asking them for money.

    They liquored him up and then talked him into signing the contract.

  6. 6
    parsley saucenounUKuncountable
    A sauce made with parsley that is the classic accompaniment to pie and mash.

    The old pie shop still makes its liquor fresh every morning.

    She ordered two pies and mash with extra liquor.

    Note

    In Britain it belongs with pie and mash: the green parsley sauce is spooned over both, and people order it by name, as in pie, mash and liquor. Despite the word, there is no alcohol in it.

  7. 7
    industrial liquidnouncountable or uncountable
    In process industries, a liquid in which a desired reaction takes place, such as the pulping liquor that breaks wood down so its cellulose can be extracted.

    The mill recovers the chemicals from its used pulping liquor and sends them back into the process.

    Engineers watch the temperature of the liquors in every tank to keep the reaction on track.

Less common meanings

  1. 8
    any drinknounobsoletecountable or uncountable
    Any liquid fit for drinking.

    The travelers carried no liquor but the spring water in their flasks.

    Buttermilk and cold tea were the only liquors served to the harvest workers.

    Note

    In older writing liquor could be any drink at all, water, milk and tea included, so a liquor in an old account of a journey or a sickroom need not be alcoholic, unlike liquor today.

  2. 9
    any liquidnounobsoletecountable or uncountable
    A liquid or fluid of any kind.

    The jar held a cloudy yellow liquor that smelled of vinegar.

    Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."
    1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia
    Note

    Here the word still means what its Latin source meant, “fluidity, a liquid”: Robert Hooke in Micrographia (1665) writes of water “or any other Liquor” expanding. That general sense is obsolete, though it survives in narrower uses like the liquid from cooking; liqueur is the same Latin word arriving by another route.

  3. 10
    greaseverbobsoletetransitive
    To grease something.

    Before winter she liquors her work boots to keep the water out.

    Liquor fishermen's boots.
    c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”
    Note

    Grease counted as a liquid here: boots were liquored, and in Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum “cart-wheels squeak not when they are liquored”. Shakespeare uses it too, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, but present-day English says grease or oil instead.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English licour, from Anglo-Norman licour, from Latin liquor ("fluidity, liquidness, a fluid, a liquid"), from liquere ("to be fluid or liquid"); see liquid. It is a doublet of liqueur.