brew

Middle English brewen, from Old English brēowan, from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-, *bʰreh₁w- (compare Welsh berw (“boiling”), Latin fervēre, Albanian mbruaj (“to knead”), Russian бруя́ (brujá, “current”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurván, “motion of water”)).

• enPR: bro͞o, IPA^(key): /bɹuː/, /bɹɪʊ̯/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

brew (third-person singular simple present brews, present participle brewing, simple past and past participle brewed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.
   • 1935, Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, 1942, Chapter Eleven, p. 113,

     Elderly people sat indoors, in the damp. shabby houses, brewing malt coffee or weak tea and talking without animation […]

2. (transitive) To heat wine, infusing it with spices; to mull.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, Scene 5,

     Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.
5. (transitive) To foment or prepare, as by brewing

   Synonyms: contrive, plot, hatch

   • 1634, John Milton, Comus, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, London: Humphrey Mosely, 1645, p. 106,

     Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceiver […]

6. (intransitive) To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, Scene 4,

     I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink […]

7. (intransitive, of an unwelcome event) To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 5,

     There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,

   • 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC‎:

     Grant may have considered that only a performance of the very highest quality could keep him in a job - and the way his players started the game gave the 55-year-old shelter from the storm that was brewing.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To boil or seethe; to cook.

brew (plural brews)

1. The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed; a brewage, such as a cup of tea.
2. (slang) A beer.
3. (Britain, informal) A hill.

• brewage
• brewer
• brewery
• brewhouse

brew

1. Alternative form of brewen

From Proto-Slavic *bry, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰruHs

• IPA^(key): /brɛf/

• audio

  (file)

brew f

1. eyebrow

• brew in Polish dictionaries at PWN