Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A fermented alcoholic beverage brewed from malt and flavored with hops.
- n. A fermented beverage brewed by traditional methods that is then dealcoholized so that the finished product contains no more than 0.5 percent alcohol.
- n. A carbonated beverage produced by a method in which the fermentation process is either circumvented or altered, resulting in a finished product having an alcohol content of no more than 0.01 percent.
- n. A beverage made from extracts of roots and plants: birch beer.
- n. A serving of one of these beverages.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An alcoholic liquor made from any farinaceous grain, but generally from barley, which is first malted and ground, and its fermentable substance extracted by hot water. To this extract or infusion hops or some other vegetable product of an agreeable bitterness is added, and it is thereupon boiled for some time, both to concentrate it and to extract the useful matters from the hops. The liquor is then suffered to ferment in vats, the time allowed for fermentation depending upon the quality and kind of beer, and after it has become clear it is stored away or sent to the market. The beers of England and France, and for the most part those of Germany, become gradually sour by exposure to air. Ale and beer were formerly synonymous terms, ale being the earlier in use; at present, beer is the common name for all malt liquors, and ale is used specifically for a carefully made beer of a certain strength, and rather light than dark: thus, small beer, ginger beer, and the like, are not ale, nor are stout and porter. A distinction drawn by Andrew Boorde, in 1542, is that ale is made of malt and water, and should contain no other ingredients, while beer is made of malt, hops, and water.
- n. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts or products of various plants, as ginger, spruce, molasses, beet, etc.
- To drink beer; tipple.
- n. One who is or exists.
- n. An obsolete form of bier.
- n. A mole or pier.
- n. Obsolete present and preterit of bear
- n. An obsolete form of bear.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable An alcoholic drink fermented from starch material commonly barley malt, often with hops or some other substance to impart a bitter flavor.
- n. uncountable A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.
- n. uncountable A solution produced by steeping plant materials in water or another fluid.
- n. countable A glass, bottle, or can of any of the above beverages.
- n. countable A variety of the above beverages.
- n. One who is or exists.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A fermented liquor made from any malted grain, but commonly from barley malt, with hops or some other substance to impart a bitter flavor.
- n. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops
Etymologies
- From Middle English beere, equivalent to be + -er. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English ber, from Old English bēor, from West Germanic, probably from Latin bibere, to drink; see pō(i)- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I am sorry that I didn't get an opportunity to get down to Washington en route to Woods Hole and talk over the whole thing over a bottle of beer, _dark beer_.”
“It was at a brew pub, which was good, but I wasn’t impressed with their beer selection (like 3 different kinds of IPAs among the 6 types of beer ”
“KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE "A litre bottle of a certain beer is known as a 'Drogba' in the Ivory Coast, on account of it being big and strong," wrote Nathan Maddison in 2007.”
The Guardian: Which club started the most managers on the road to football success?
“Drinking 12 ounces of beer is the equivalent of eating two slices of bread, and the carbohydrates in beer, like those in bread, are used as an energy source for the brain, the blood and the muscles.”
“(This beer is a staple in my fridge; always have a growler.)”
“While seemingly innocuous, if you've had a few too many "sports drinks" (which I call beer in Gatorade squeeze bottles, for the beer drinker who doesn't have time to both open and close his mouth), this can be confusing and may even lead you to believe you're watching the game backwards.”
The Huffington Post: Scott Janssen: From Athletic Cup to World Cup
“THE wildest alleycat fight since Finnegan needled the beer is about to take place in the American automobile world for 1960.”
“When the beer is available, I'll get a bottle and critique it on the show.”
“The wife and I agreed that pretty much the only place for this beer is after dinner when you would usually uncork a neat tumbler of Laphroaig, Highland Park or Talisker.”
“The Appetizers (Gyoza/Shu Mai) were very good though at $4/each and the beer is actually not too expensive for midtown (3.50).”
Men Kui Tei | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘beer’.
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Beer and Brewing
Words about beer and the making of it.
airlock, bung, carboy, diversol, hops, mashtun, beer, sparge, trub, wort, malt, malt liquor and 184 more...
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CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
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Tati's list
comfortable
comfortable, avocado, avoid, beautiful, beer, bear, brief, breath, bug, bias, burn, case and 97 more...
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Mandles, Candles for Men
candles with a "manly" scent
a1 steak sauce, baseball glove, grillin' out, campfire, pigskin, bowling alley, musty locker room, chuck norris sweat, urinal deodorizer, bait shop, wet dog, hardware store and 210 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Blue Ridge Mountains Moonshiners' Terms
List of terms for items and the process for creating illegal whiskey.
backins, double run, thumper, thumper keg, thump barrel, bead, beading oil, beer, teedum, blackpot, submarine still, boiler and 24 more...
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Nouns for XKCD936-compliant passphrases
A list of 2048 common English nouns (of 4 letters or more) that could be used to generate plausible, memorable random phrases.
I'm going to use this list in a password generator, inspi...miracle, hotdog, chair, horse, staple, battery, beer, cheese, fire, head, hand, foot and 15 more...
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Wort to the wise
Brewing terms
wort, gruit, metheglin, mead, perry, mulsum, finings, irish moss, malt, hops, morat, melomel and 43 more...
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Wine & Spirits
Vintage, toast, vodka, wine, whisky, beer, port, cocktail, stout, champagne, brandy, rum and 2 more...
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Rodeo
rodeo, rodeo clown, barrel racing, bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, bucking horse, bucking bronco, bronco, bull, steer and 57 more...
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Things that taste better than they smell
See also Things that smell better than they taste.
durian, garlic, espresso, grapes, beer, hard boiled eggs, really runny cheeses, cumin, onions, vinegar, tuna, steamed cauliflower and 7 more...
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Gas-Inducing Foodstuffs
Foods that produce flatulence. List title a shameless filching of a fortuitous phrase yarb introduced in his definition of scotch egg. I know everyone has a few foods they avoid at certain times ...
scotch egg, cabbage, chili beans, garbanzo beans, chickpeas, hummus, pickled eggs, rutabaga, radish, jerusalem artichoke, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and 42 more...
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candy cane heroin
sex, sexual, branden, rozz, candy cane, candy canes, cotton candy, may day, may, taurus, heroin, love and 134 more...
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A Crumb Of Comfort
Types of bread & breadmaking terms. Mainly I'm looking for plain or savoury breads but I'll accept the sweet-ish ones as long as they are more bread than cake :-)
lagana, khobz, pita, foccaccia, ciabatta, bap, altamura, knead, leaven, crumpet, muffin, bagel and 202 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for beer.

bilby "'My easy description of the beer is it's a beer-flavored beer,' said Leonard."
- Norman Miller, Can it on the critique, milforddailynews.com, 24 Nov 2009.
This from a brewer! Nov 26, 2009
hernesheir Moonshiner's term for the liquid part of fermented mash. "Beer", also called teedum, was often made for its own sake rather than for distilling. Aug 25, 2009
Prolagus In Heaven there is no beer (No beer?!)
That's why we drink it here
And when we're all gone from here
Our friends will be drinking all the beer.
(Brave Combo) Apr 25, 2008
anydelirium '"There's this car, that runs on water, man. Th reason the government doesn't want us to know about it is cause they know we'll buy all the water, and there'll be nothing left to drink, except BEER. And they know that beer, will set us free."' -That 70's Show Feb 18, 2008
jrome erin: Clay, do you want some tea?
clay: Only if it has beer in it.
--1/21/08 Jan 22, 2008
bilby "In the late 18th century and early 19th century, smuggling provided many citizens of Beer with an income on both sides of the law. According to George Pulman in 'The Book of the Axe', published in 1875, 'In former days, when the coastguard was inefficient and the exciseman lax, the Beer men were the very kings of smugglers.'
Beer fishermen had always had a fine reputation for their ability to handle and sail boats. With this ability and the ideal geographical location for landing contraband and transportation to remote farms and houses, smuggling became an alternative "trade" for some of the fishermen. By 1750, the area was so notorious that the local revenue officers were reinforced by dragoons posted in Beer, Branscombe and Seaton.
The boats used were Beer luggers, built in Beer, between 25ft to 35ft in length. They usually had a 4 man crew. Much of the contraband was brought in from the Channel Island of Alderney, but in some cases the smugglers would collect contraband from the North coast of France. As well as casks of brandy, tea, tobacco and silk were other commodities that were smuggled into Beer.
Not all of the inhabitants of Beer were smugglers, indeed some worked for the authorities to catch the smugglers. This could prove complicated and there are reported instances of coastguards being bribed to turn a blind eye at the appropriate time. The honest citizens could also make money from smuggling by informing on the smugglers or by retrieving the contraband. Revenue Cutter captains were rewarded for the contraband once it was handed over to the authorities and sold.
If a smuggler was being chased by a Revenue Cutter or had received a signal from shore, usually a fire, that coastguards were about, then the casks could be roped together in a raft and sunk offshore and its position marked by a float for later retrieval by 'creeping', fishing up the tubs using grappling hooks. In the event that the smuggler did not have time to sink a raft, then the kegs could be thrown overboard. To secure a conviction, the Cutter required both the smuggler and the contraband, so by separating himself from the contraband increased the smuggler's chances of escape, especially as the contraband could be of financial benefit to the Revenue Cutter captain. Revenue cutter crews would also 'creep' for contraband if they thought they knew where a raft of kegs had been sunk."
- from www.beer-devon.co.uk/ Jan 2, 2008
bilby A coastal village in Devon, England.
"Down in Devon, down in Devon,
There's a village by the sea,
It's a little piece of heaven
And the angels call it Beer!"
- from www.beer-devon.co.uk/
The sad news is that in the Beer Congregational Church it's only God being worshipped. Jan 1, 2008