squirrel whiskey

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. High-proof, low-quality whiskey, generally produced illegally.

Word forms

squirrel whiskey

Etymology

According to a widely repeated jocular explanation, “it [makes] those who [drink] it inclined to climb a tree,”; but the term is more plausibly explained by the fact that “squirrels were often drowned in the open-air mash-tubs used by moonshiners” and/or that the liquor was aged “by tying the keg in a tall pine tree”.

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