Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A drink made of molasses and water, and sometimes a little vinegar and ginger; also, rum and water sweetened with molasses, formerly a common beverage among American sailors; hence, in sailors' use, any strong drink, sweetened and flavored.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun United States A beverage of molasses and water, seasoned with vinegar and ginger.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US A
beverage ofmolasses andwater ,seasoned withvinegar andginger .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Water, thickened with oatmeal, or made spicy with vinegar and ginger, "switchel," as it is called, served to quench the thirst.
Cowboy Dave Frank V. Webster
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I think I'll grab a cold glass of switchel after one last chapter revision, and veg out in front of the World Cup.
jhetley: Return of the Couch Potato jhetley 2010
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The breakfast was eaten, the luncheon was packed in a large basket, with bottles of root beer and a jug of switchel, which packing I superintended with the greatest interest; and then the cattle were to be collected for the march, and the horses hitched up.
Being a Boy Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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The breakfast was eaten, the luncheon was packed in a large basket, with bottles of root beer and a jug of switchel, which packing I superintended with the greatest interest; and then the cattle were to be collected for the march, and the horses hitched up.
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste?
I and My Chimney 1856
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I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste?
I and My Chimney Herman Melville 1855
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This fall, Peels, just across the Bowery from Saxon & Parole, will introduce a switchel.
NYT > Home Page By ROBERT SIMONSON 2011
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The old Yankee haymaker’s drink, switchel, was, essentially, vinegar water with molasses and ginger.
My Cider Vinegar Experiment: The Remarkable Final Report Herrick Kimball 2006
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“Come, Molly, pretty dear;” set in her father, “no blackstrap to night; no switchel, or ginger-pop.
Margaret 1851
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Adding herbs and sweeteners push posca in the direction of more familiar old school vinegar-based drinks like switchel, sekanjabin, and shrub.
My favorite beverage is a 2,000-year-old energy drink from ancient Rome Gwynn Guilford 2022
yarb commented on the word switchel
'What care I, if, unaware that my chimney, as a free citizen of this free land, stands upon an independent basis of its own, people passing it wonder how such a brick-kiln, as they call it, is supported upon mere joists and rafters? What care I? I will give a traveller a cup of switchel, if he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste? Men of cultivated minds see, in my old house and chimney, a goodly old elephant-and-castle.'
- Melville, I and My Chimney
(A must read for all fans of things Freudian)
April 3, 2010
ry commented on the word switchel
This sounds yummy
March 4, 2014
qms commented on the word switchel
A fishing boat captain named Twitchell
Will end every trip with a ritual:
He toasts his last catch
With rum down the hatch
And gleefully ditches his switchel.
February 3, 2019