▪ I. brandy, n.
(ˈbrændɪ)
Also 7 brandwine, brandewine, brandy-wine, brandee.
[The orig. form brandwine, brandewine is a. Du. brandewijn ‘burnt’ (i.e. distilled) wine. In familiar use abbreviated as brandy as early as 1657; but the fuller form was retained in official use (customs tariffs, acts of parliament, etc.) down to the end of 17th c., being latterly, as the spelling shows, regarded as a compound of brandy + wine.]
1. a. Properly an ardent spirit distilled from wine or grapes; but the name is also applied to spirits of similar flavour and appearance, obtained from other materials.
| α 1622 Fletcher Beggar's Bush iii. i, Buy any brand-wine, buy any brand-wine? c 1650 Roxb. Ballads (1886) VI. 320 It is more fine than Brandewine, The Butterboxes' Poison. 1652 Proc. Parliament No. 153. 2391 Laden with Woolls, Brandy Wine and Salt. 1697 View Penal Laws 173 No Aqua-Vitæ or Brandy-Wine shall be imported into England. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) V. 23, I was entertained, With Kisses fine, and Brandy Wine. |
| β 1657 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) Introd. 5 The late Dutch war..occasioned the bringing in of such superfluity of brandy. 1663 Hickeringill Jamaica 78 Of your Wine and Brandee, you'le be free. 1790 Burns Scots Prol. 4 Does nonsense mend, like brandy, when imported? 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. iii. ii. 158 And take his snack of brandy for digestion. |
b. A drink of brandy. Similarly
brandy-and soda (
cf. B. and S.
s.v. B. III.)
| 1884 G. Moore Mummer's Wife (1887) 193 The brandies and sodas supped in the dressing room. 1900 E. Glyn Visits Elizabeth 253 Charlie had two brandies-and-sodas instead of his usual glass of milk. 1903 Daily Chron. 11 Nov. 5/2 Took a brandy before going to kirk, lest I should smell of whisky in the house of the Lord! 1932 E. Bowen To North xvii. 174 They would want two brandies. |
c. fig. Something that stimulates or excites.
| 1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 99 Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned. 1930 M. Enthoven tr. Janni's Machiavelli 80 Machiavelli is the most glorious distiller of political brandy who has ever existed. |
2. Comb. and
attrib., as
brandy-cag,
brandy-devil,
brandy-dough,
brandy-flask,
brandy-keg,
brandy-man,
brandy-merchant,
brandy-shop, and in the names of drinks as
brandy and soda,
brandy and water,
brandy-flip,
brandy-posset,
brandy-punch, etc.;
† brandy-face;
brandy-faced,
brandy-burnt,
brandy-sodden adjs.; also
brandy-ball, a kind of sweet;
brandy-butter, a hard sauce made of brandy and butter;
brandy-cherry = cherry-brandy; also cherries preserved in brandy; so
brandy-peach, etc.;
brandy paper, paper steeped in brandy;
brandy-smash U.S. (see
quot. 1909 and
smash n.1 5);
brandy-snap, wafer-like gingerbread. Also
brandy-bottle,
brandy-pawnee.
| 1825, 1849 *Brandy-ball [see hard-bake]. 1862 Mayhew Crim. Prisons 51 Buttons, that have much the appearance of small brandy-balls. |
| 1838 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 161 A large..*brandy-burnt, heavy-faced man. |
| 1939 ‘Vivette’ in A. L. Simon Concise Encycl. Gastronomy I. 29/2 In U.S.A., a Hard Sauce is made with one measure of fresh butter to two of castor sugar... In England, a similar sauce is called *Brandy Butter or Rum Butter. |
| 1795 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Lousiad ii. Wks. 1812 I. 227 And for a cruet stands a *brandy-cag. |
| a 1687 Cotton Aeneid II. Burl. (1692) 83 Whether 't was that she..Fainted for want of *brandy-cherry. 1853 Harper's Mag. VII. 275/2 A swine drunk on brandy-cherry stones is disgusting. 1885 C. M. Yonge Two Sides of Shield II. v. 101 And there was Miss Hacket getting brandy cherries and strong coffee. |
| 1820 Shelley Œdipus Tyr. i. i, Fat martyrs to the persecution Of stifling turtle-soup and *brandy-devils. |
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 21 Supplied with *brandy dough. |
| a 1687 Cotton Aeneid II. Burl. (1692) 85 You goodman *Brandy-face, unfist her. |
| 1861 Sala Tw. round Clock 284 Hulking labourers and *brandy-faced viragos, squabbling at tavern doors. |
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 168 I've emptied the *brandy-flask; and that's a bad job. |
| 1865 E. Burritt Walk to Land's E. 62 Articles of food and drink..such as egg-nog and *brandy-flip. |
| 1865 N. Brit. Rev. Sept. 227 Ula informed me that he had lost the *brandy-keg. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6172/9 Henry Gillum..*Brandyman. |
| a 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 139 After some unsuccessful essays in the way of poetry, he commenced *brandy-merchant. |
| 1769 Mrs Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 227 Tie them down with *brandy papers over them. |
| 1781 Hayley Tri. Temper iii. 467 Eager she plies them with a *brandy peach. |
| 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 309 To make a *Brandy Posset. |
| 1689 Sewall Diary (1878) I. 306 In the Lord's Hall Guy's Pot was filled with *Brandy Punch. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvi, Mr. Jarvie compounded..a very small bowl of brandy-punch. |
| a 1719 Addison Play-house (R.) Forgets his pomp..And to some peaceful *brandy-shop retires. |
| 1850 A. W. Thaxter Poem before Iadma 7 Or didst thou at the Pemberton absorb a *brandy-smash? 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Brandy-smash, a drink made by mixing brandy with crushed ice and putting a few sprigs of mint in the glass. |
| 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. ix. 300 Send me..a..supply of *brandy and soda. |
| 1854 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gen. Bounce (1855) I. ix. 203 Sufficient to destroy the ideal in the most *brandy-sodden brain. |
| 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xi, A hot..glass of *brandy-and-water. |
▪ II. † ˈbrandy, a. Obs. rare—1.
[see branded ppl. a.1] = branded ppl. a.
1| 1608 Topsell Serpents 734 ‘Squalidus albenti color est.’ In English, brandy colour. |
▪ III. ˈbrandy, v. [f. brandy n.] 1. trans. To mix or treat with brandy.
| a 1848 Marryat R. Reefer xliv, [He] scolded Quasha for not brandying his sangaree. 1855 Fraser's Mag. LI. 647 The French do not brandy up their wines for home consumption. |
2. To refresh or fortify with brandy.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. v, When his guests had been washed, mended, brushed, and brandied. 1862 B. Taylor Home & Abr. Ser. ii. ii. 120 At the Six-Mile House, our horses were watered, and the passengers brandied. |
b. to brandy it: to drink brandy in excess.
| a 1819 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Wks. (1830) 138 He surely had been brandying it, or beering. |