mountain dew

See also: Mountain Dew

English

Etymology

So called because it was often illicitly distilled in the mountains.

Noun

mountain dew (uncountable)

1. (Southern US, Ireland) Illegally distilled whiskey.
   • 1837 November, “Leistering Salmon by Torch-Light”, in New Sporting Magazine, volume XIII, number 79, page 310:

     […] and a big-bellied bottle of old whiskey — for there is nothing like mountain-dew taken internally for resisting the effects of night mists.

   • 1870s or 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, […]

2. (Trinidad and Tobago) Illegally distilled rum.

Synonyms

• (illegally distilled whiskey): bootleg, hooch, moonshine, poteen (Ireland), white lightning