Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A provision of ale or strong beer formerly drunk in the spring of the year. The signal for broaching it seems to have been the first cry of the cuckoo.
Examples
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Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cuckoo-ale’.
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Forgotten English 1
jacal, mastaba, lucarne, quoin, triglyph, gargarice, nimgimmer, phrenologize, fleam, eaglestone, toad eater, king's evil and 156 more...
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Drinky~time, or That Most Happy of Hours
impairement! oh lugubrious libations of unenviable inebriation
all sorts, cock ale, soot-tea, stirrup-dram, steel-wine, aurum potable, burying-drink, ambergris, butler's ale, metheglin, morning purl, mum and 45 more...
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It's Beer O'Clock
Types of beer.
rumfustian, stoorey, kvass, calibogus, clamber-clown, courmi, cuckoo-ale, dole-beer, egg-flip, gale-beer, grout-ale, home-brew and 85 more...
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missanthropist Ale drunk out of doors to welcome the cuckoo's return.
A singular custom prevails in Shropshire at this period of the year spring, which is peculiar to that county. as soon as the first cuckoo has been heard, all the labouring classes leave work, if in the middle of the day, and time is devoted to mirth and jollity over what has been called the Cuckoo Ale.
John Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities, 1813 Feb 4, 2009