Definitions

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

  • noun A place for the illegal sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, as during Prohibition in the United States.

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

  • noun An illegal saloon or tavern operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (during prohibition) an illegal barroom

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • Probably first ran across this word in my potboiler days.

    October 21, 2007

  • "Once the Xanadu of the Baathist ruling class, the 10-square-kilometer Green Zone, as described by journalist Scott Johnson, is now a surreal theme park of the American way of life:

    'Women in shorts and T-shirts jog down broad avenues and the Pizza Inn does a brisk business from the parking lot of the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy. Near the Green Zone Bazaar, Iraqi kids hawk pornographic DVDs to soldiers. Sheik Fuad Rashid, the U.S.-appointed imam of the local mosque, dresses like a nun, dyes his hair platinum blond and claims that Mary Mother of Jesus appeared to him in a vision (hence the getup). On any given night, residents can listen to karaoke, play badminton or frequent one of several rowdy bars, including an invitation-only speakeasy run by the CIA.'"

    - 'Return To Sender', Mike Davis, 14 April 2006.

    February 28, 2008