Slang for liquor/spirits

My friends at CritiqueCircle.com helped me come up with this list.  It started as research for my novel ... really!  The results are too cool to keep to myself ;-)

  • the Amber nectar - British - an old Fosters advertising slogan
  • bewy - British
  • booze
  • brew - Australian for beer
  • brew
  • brewsky
  • bubbly - Champagne and sparkling wine
  • Caucasian - only if you're talking about the cocktail White Russian
  • Devil's mouthwash
  • Do it fluid
  • drop o' the pure
  • firewater
  • fizz - British - beer
  • froth - Australian- beer
  • gargle
  • Grandpa's cough medicine
  • Grandpa's cough syrup
  • grog
  • hair of the dog
  • hard stuff
  • hooch
  • horse piss - Newfoundland, Canada - beer
  • juice
  • liquid courage
  • liquid lunch
  • loopy juice
  • moonshine
  • mother's ruin - British - Cockney rhyme for gin; adopted country-wide, but mostly among the older generations.
  • nip of something
  • pint - British - beer
  • pint of the old pencil sharpener - British - beer
  • plonk - British - wine
  • poison
  • pop - British - beer
  • potcheen - Irish - moonshine
  • rot gut
  • sauce
  • sauce - British - beer
  • scrumpy* (see below)
  • sherbert - British - beer
  • snifter
  • spirits
  • swift half* (see below)
  • tipple - British
  • vino - British - wine
  • wee dram - British
  • white lightning
  • yac - Cognac
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
scrumpy: from the West Country - Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall; however, versions of it are available right across the country.  A pretty strong, rough, dry cider, not ever sweet, usually not fermented very long. usually cloudy, makes you drunk quickly. It's not put through all the stages of fermentation you would use to make a proper clear cider.


swift half: literally a half pint of beer but I think it's understood to have a very expandable meaning. Usually turns out to be at least a couple of pints and lasts for most of the evening.