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of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." Shak.

Sour beer. [Obs.]

A house where malt liquors are sold; an alehouse.

Beery condition.

Of or resembling beer; affected by beer; maudlin.

An alkaloid got from the bark of the bebeeru, or green heart of Guiana (Nectandra Rodioei). It is a tonic, antiperiodic, and febrifuge, and is used in medicine as a substitute for quinine. [Written also bibirine.]

tropical South American tree (Nectandra Rodioi), the bark of which yields the alkaloid bebeerine, and the wood of which is known as green heart.

Beer kept unbroached until it is sharp. Crabb.

A strong beer, originally made in Bavaria. [Also written buck beer.]

To gaff, as mackerel.

Originally a German beer, but now also made in immense quantities in the United States; -- so called from its being laid up or stored for some months before use.

Any of various malt liquors (see Citation).

A mild German beer.

See Schenkbeer.

A light-colored highly effervescent beer made by the top- fermentation process.

Orig., an officer appointed to look to the goodness of ale and beer; also, one of the officers chosen by the liverymen of London to inspect the measures used in public houses. But the office is a sinecure. [Also called aletaster.] [Eng.]

A worthless mixture, especially of liquors. Indeed beer, by a mixture of wine, hath lost both name and nature, and is called balderdash. Taylor (Drink and Welcome).

ly of grasses, genus Hordeum, used for food, and for making malt, from which are prepared beer, ale, and whisky. Barley bird (Zoöl.), the siskin. -- Barley sugar, sugar boiled till it is brittle (formerly with a decoction of barley) and candied. -- Barley water, a decoction of barley, used in medicine, as a nutritive…

Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast. Shak.

A girl or woman who attends the customers of a bar, as in a tavern or beershop. A bouncing barmaid. W. Irving.