aqua fortis

alternative aquafortis

1. uncountablealchemyA corrosive liquor made of saltpeter, serving as a solvent for dissolving silver and all other metals except gold.

   Synonyms: A.F., strong water

2. dateddialectaluncountableAny strong and potentially dangerous alcoholic drink.

   “Watkey” [vodka] is, in fact, aquafortis, and more injurious than any other spirit.

   1871 September 9, “Occasional Notes”, in The Temperance Record, number 805, page 422

   4 more examples

   this man’s whiskey ain’t Red Eye, it ain’t Chain Lightnin’ either, it’s regular Agur-forty, and there isn’t a man living can stand a glass and keep his senses.

   1867 December 25, “Police Reports”, in New Orleans Picayune

   Doubtless the drinking of liquor adds to the cost of our judiciary; doubtless it is responsible for some crime; but the question at issue is not one of liquor-drinking vs. teetotalism—it is a question of drinking licensed liquor or Prohibition aquafortis.

   1896, W. C. Brann, Brann, the Iconoclast, volume 1, page 390

   Here’s to her health and to her offspring haughty — And let the toast be drunk in aqua forty.

   1917, Harvard College Class of 1872: Tenth Report of the Secretary, page 97

   I’m in the best of spirits, the very best! Nothing like a few glasses of agur-forty to make a man feel on top of the world!

   1990, Graham Masterton, Empress, page 166

   Synonyms: A.F., strong water

3. archaicuncountablechemistrySynonym of nitric acid.

   Synonyms: nitric acid