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Glite Dictionary
🍺 Beer with whiskey 🛠️ Metal worker
boilermaker

boilermaker

3 7.9
A glass of beer served with a shot of whiskey
  • noun
  • /ˈbɔɪlərˌmeɪkər/
  • US
translation icon : boilermaker
  • He ordered a boilermaker to enjoy with his friends at the bar.
  • drink your boilermakers

Examples

  • Give me a boilermaker!

    Finding Steve McQueen (2019)

  • You want a quadruple boilermaker?

    Shakedown (1988)

  • The boilermakers are with us!

    Cradle Will Rock (1999)

  • Give us a couple boilermakers, Fred.

    A River Runs Through It (1992)

  • Cherisse procured a second boilermaker.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Cherisse ordered a boilermaker.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • That's the boilermakers' kids.

    Cradle Will Rock (1999)

  • While Cherisse choked on the half-inhaled boilermaker, Zo went on: "I know it is different for you."

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I worked my way toward the bar, past lap-seated trollops hoisting foamy mugs of beer to their lips and brawny laborers knocking back "boilermakers."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • And for dessert, a boilermaker featuring a shot of Berghoff's aged bourbon from one of the bottles reflected along the base of the mirror—a private toast to Uncle Lefty.

    Fiction book (1996)

How Strong

whiskey neat
  • US
1 5.6
boilermaker
  • US
3 7.9
beer
∞ 1.0
soft drink
40 1.0

Surface Forms

boilermaker singular
boilermakers plural

Morphology

boilermaker = boiler + maker (opaque) = boiler + maker

Although formed from 'boiler' + 'maker', the drink sense is a metonymic name (named for the workers) and its composition does not let learners derive 'beer + shot of whiskey'.

Etymology

Boilermaker for the drink probably comes from the workers who made boilers. One popular story says these workers would drink a shot of whiskey with their beer after work, so the drink took their name and today a boilermaker is a glass of beer served with a shot of whiskey.