speakeasy slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
(ˈspiːkiːzɪ)
Also speak-easy.
[f. speak v. + easy adv.]
A shop or bar where alcoholic liquor is sold illegally. Also attrib.
| 1889 Voice (N.Y.) 14 Nov., Hundreds of unlicensed dealers in both cities continued to run under the names of ‘clubs’ and ‘speak-easies’. 1895 L. Pendleton Corona of Nantahalas iv. 45 A sort of rural ‘speak easy’, where the colourless liquid was poured into the purchasers' bottles from a new and innocent-looking kerosene can. 1903 A. H. Lewis Boss xiii. 162 That..no side-doors or speak⁓easy racket [should be] stood for. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 418 In the speakeasy. Tight. I shee you, shir. 1946 [see creep joint s.v. creep n. 6]. 1958 S. Traill in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz vi. 75 Every cheap speakeasy had its resident piano player. 1961 W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio vii. 138 Inevitably some of these underground caves became ‘speak-easy’ dens where the local black-marketeers sold vino to the troops. 1968 [see prohibition era s.v. prohibition 6]. 1982 Age (Melbourne) 3 Feb. 6/6 Unable to find a respectable job, she first became a bootlegger during the Prohibition era and ran a speakeasy. |