Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wine made from elderberries, usually with the addition of some spirit.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his bride took their departure, side by side in the excellent new spring-cart which the young tranter now possessed.

    Under the Greenwood Tree 2006

  • He wonders that the Americans should build with wood, whilst all this stone is lying in the roadside, and is astonished to learn that a wooden house may last a hundred years; nor will he remember the fact as many minutes after it has been told him; he wonders they do not make elder-wine and cherry-bounce, since here are cherries, and every mile is crammed with elder bushes.

    Uncollected Prose 2006

  • Towards bed-time you hear of elder-wine, and not seldom of punch.

    Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries William Francis Dawson

  • Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his bride took their departure, side by side in the excellent new spring-cart which the young tranter now possessed.

    Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school Thomas Hardy 1884

  • Mrs. Yeobright now murmured a few words to her son, who crossed the room to the pantry door, striking his head against the mistletoe as he passed, and brought the mummers beef and bread, cake pastry, mead, and elder-wine, the waiting being done by him and his mother, that the little maid-servant might sit as guest.

    The Return of the Native 1878

  • The elder-wine was accordingly accepted, and the glass vanished inside the ribbons.

    The Return of the Native 1878

  • They sit in the kitchen, drink mead and elder-wine, and sand the floor to keep it clean.

    The Return of the Native 1878

  • -- In most hedges, though its honours are gone as the staple of elder-wine, and still better of elder-flower water, which village sages used to brew, and which was really an excellent remedy for weak eyes.

    John Keble's Parishes Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • Indeed, when the elder-wine was brought in, it gave rise to a new burst of discussion; for Jenny, the little maiden who staggered under the tray, had to give evidence of having seen a ghost with her own eyes, not so many nights ago, in Darkness Lane, the very lane we were to go through on our way home.

    Cranford Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

  • Not all the elder-wine that ever was mulled could this night wash out the remembrance of this difference between Miss Pole and her hostess.

    Cranford Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

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