malt liquor
7
4.8
- noun
- /mɔlt ˈlɪkər/
- US
:
licor de malta
- With the delectable combination of the finest barleys and hops... it's the only malt liquor... that carries the seal of excellence from Uncle Sam himself.
- drink malt liquor
- bottles of malt liquor
- 40-ounce malt liquor
Examples
-
Small-batch, craft-brewed, 40-ounce malt liquor.
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At the party, everyone enjoyed drinking malt liquor because of its high alcohol content.
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The only malt liquor to be approved by the United States government?
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The corner liquor store will see a jump in malt liquor and lottery ticket sales.
Blog text (10) -
That entire shipment was just malt liquor.
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The half-finished bottle of malt liquor, much stronger than she'd imagined, sat on the floor beside her.
Fiction book (1999) -
The men on the stoop stretched back on their elbows and slurped their malt liquor thoughtfully.
Fiction book (1999) -
He found an interesting craft malt liquor that had an alcohol level exceeding that of standard beers.
-
After a long day, she relaxed on the porch with a cold bottle of malt liquor in hand.
Synonyms
14
5.6
A strong beer with higher alcohol than regular lager
How Alcoholic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The elements 'malt' and 'liquor' together clearly indicate an alcoholic beverage made from malt and suggest a strong drink, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer it refers to a strong alcohol-related drink. However, the precise sense — that it is a high-alcohol lager-style beer rather than a distilled spirit — is not fully predictable and the word 'liquor' can mislead, so the relation is only partly transparent.
Etymology
The compound malt liquor comes from the words malt and liquor. Malt is the grain used to make beer and liquor used to mean a strong drink, so the phrase came to mean a 'strong beer' with higher alcohol content.