peat-reek
[f. peat1 + reek n.1, smoke.]
1. The smoke of a peat-fire. Also attrib.
| 1803 Sir A. Boswell Spirit of Tintoc Poet. Wks. (1871) 120 He smelt like a peat-reek warming pan. 1860 G. H. K. in Vac. Tour. 164 They aver that it is the loss of the peat-reek and its creosote, which now goes up the grand stone chimney. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxii. 308 There was a scent of peat-reek in the air. |
2. A cant name for whisky distilled over a peat-fire and so supposed to be flavoured with peat-smoke; orig. the produce of a moorland illicit still, ‘mountain dew’; also loosely, Highland whisky generally.
The ‘peat-reek’ flavour is really that of amyl alcohol, due to imperfect rectification.
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. (1876) 91 A male o' sic food, washed down by a few glasses of peatreek. 1862 R. H. Story in Athenæum 30 Aug. 270 We sat till twelve o'clock, paying our devotions to the peat-reek. 1870 J. K. Hunter Studies 131 A shoemaker, who..had imbibed strongly of peat-reek whisky. |