V-8 juice

3.1

A drink made from eight vegetables, often tomato, sold in cans or bottles

noun
/viː-eɪtʃuːs/

: jugo V-8

The recipe calls for tomato juice, but you can substitute V-8 juice for extra flavor.

Examples

I love drinking V-8 juice for breakfast.
She always keeps some V-8 juice in the fridge for a quick, healthy drink.
I started my day with a glass of V-8 juice instead of orange juice.
Have you tried V-8 juice with your lunch?
For a healthy breakfast, I often drink V-8 juice, which includes a blend of vegetables.
She prefers V-8 juice over soft drinks because it is packed with nutrients.
At the grocery store, I always buy a few cans of V-8 juice to keep in the fridge.

Surface Forms

V-8 juice singular

V-8 juices plural

Morphology

V-8 + juice

The word 'juice' makes the category clear so a B1 learner will understand this is a drink product, but the element 'V-8' is an alphanumeric brand label with no transparent lexical meaning for most learners. The precise sense — a blend of eight vegetables, tomato-based and a commercial brand — cannot be derived from the constituents, so overall the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

V-8 juice comes from the idea of mixing the juices of 'eight vegetables' into one drink, and the short name V-8 made that idea easy to remember. That's why the name now means a juice made from a mix of vegetables.