bathtub gin

noun

, Informal.

1. homemade gin, especially gin made illegally during Prohibition.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathtub gin¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

You might guess bathtub gin or home-brewed beer.

From National Geographic

Downing homemade hooch and bathtub gin, they also turned to smugglers who sold them rum, brandy, and other drinks.

From Literature

At 90 minutes, that night is brief, maybe too brief, and feels less like an immersive soak in Prohibition New York than a slug of bathtub gin.

From New York Times

Spiegelman saw March’s work as a memento of a different age: “His generation swilled bathtub gin and had a wild party. Our generation gulps Prozac,” he wrote in his introduction.

From New York Times

All through those precious months in Paris, you were the bathtub gin: hardscrabble, rough, a little bitter, but invigorating.

From Seattle Times