Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
altar wine

altar wine

6.3
Wine used in a Christian communion service at church
  • noun
translation icon : vino de altar
  • During the communion service, the priest served altar wine to the congregation.

Examples

  • After the mass, the leftover altar wine is usually stored for future services.

  • It's like drinking altar wine.

    People Like Us (2012)

  • It's the altar wine from Father O'Neil's chapel up the street.

    Whisky Galore (2016)

  • You weren't one of those boys drinking the altar wine last year, were you, Willie?

    Bran Nue Dae (2009)

  • Describing McAndrew as a dimwit at this institute would get you the same reaction as chugging the altar wine during a church service.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The church provides altar wine for use in its weekly Eucharist ceremonies.

Synonyms

sacramental wine
vsaltar wine
1 6.5

Wine blessed and used in Christian Communion to show Christ's blood

is wine used during a Eucharist that may not be consecrated

How Sacred

altar wine
6.3
table wine
  • US
1 2.9

Surface Forms

altar wine singular
altar wines plural

Morphology

altar + wine

The meaning is directly compositional: 'altar' (a worship structure) + 'wine' (the beverage) yields wine associated with the altar and worship services. This is a common, literal naming pattern cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'vino de misa') so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The noun altar wine comes from Christian worship. It is the wine placed on the altar, the special table, during the communion service to represent the 'blood of Christ'. That's why altar wine means the wine used in that ceremony.