Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various alcoholic liquors of the Middle East, distilled from grapes, raisins, or dates and flavored with anise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Middle East

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic, short for ‘araq al-tamr, literally, sweat of the date (the liquor having originally been distilled from date wine) : ‘araq, sweat (from ‘ariqa, to sweat; see עrq in Semitic roots) + al-, the + tamr, date.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Arabic عرق

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Examples

  • And with its Christian heritage, Lebanon produces wine and a licorice-flavored alcohol called arak that can be sampled while partaking in Beirut's famously frenzied nightlife.

    Reader - MassLive.com 2010

  • Empires, real and imagined, rose and fell over arak and Arabic coffee in the cafés and bars of Beirut.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • We grew up there, playing in the fields, riding horses, chasing our dogs and pets, hunting, enjoying endless festive mezze and barbeque lunches with homemade arak.

    Brad Haskel: Why Massaya Is More Than Just Wine: The Ghosn Family Story Brad Haskel 2011

  • First, he rented an old still and sold the arak as homemade and handcrafted.

    Brad Haskel: Why Massaya Is More Than Just Wine: The Ghosn Family Story Brad Haskel 2011

  • Tiny glasses of crystal-clear arak that clouded into milky iridescence when you added ice.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Maher had brought a bottle of arak all the way from Beirut.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • I could feel my Arabic fluency rising miraculously as the level of arak in the bottle sank lower and lower.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Hazem Al-Amin and Maher Abi Samra supplied arak and occasional Arabic-to-French translation.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • The aquamarine smell of anise fogged upward from the arak.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • In the mountains of Lebanon, where people still make their own wine and arak, kibbeh nayeh is washed down with a shot of the fiery anisette liqueur.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

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