bathtub gin

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bathtub gin (countable and uncountable, plural bathtub gins)

1. (idiomatic) Gin or a similar alcoholic beverage which is of very poor quality, as if made by a homebrewer in a bathtub.
   • 1936 June 14, "‘Dates as Usual’," Milwaukee Journal, p. 2 (retrieved 31 July 2013):

     Part of Dallman's "Three Blind Mice" parody follows:

     They called us donkey-braying cranks

     But all they gave to win our thanks

     Was bathtub gin and busted banks

     For twelve long years.

   • 1984 Dec. 30, Alvin Klein, "‘Brown Sugar’ Done to a Bubbling Turn" (theatre review), New York Times (retrieved 31 July 2013):

     A 1976 Broadway hit, "Bubbling Brown Sugar" recreates the night life of the 1920s - when they drank "scotch in teacups" and bathtub gin.

   • 2008 Dec. 5, "Top 10 Prohibition Tales: Mortal Moonshine," Time:

     It wasn't just the violent Prohibition-era gang wars that were dangerous to Americans drinking homemade moonshine and bathtub gin.

• Used especially to refer to bootlegged liquor produced during the U.S. Prohibition era (1919-1933).

• bootleg
• moonshine
• rotgut

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