arrack

plural arracks · alternative arak

1. countableuncountableAn alcoholic drink distilled from coconut palm flowers in South Asia.

   Moti Guj was very fond of liquor—arrack for choice, though he would drink palm-tree toddy if nothing better offered.

   1891 August, Rudyard Kipling, “Moti Guj–Mutineer”, in Life’s Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., […], published October 1891, →OCLC, page 308

   4 more examples

   From hence we firſt ſailed to Achin, in the iſland of Sumatra, and then to Siam, where we bartered our wares for ſome arrack and opium, the laſt of which bore a great price among the Chineſe:[…]

   1777, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 7th edition, London: […] S. Crowder, […]; J. Sewell, […]; W. Johnston, […]; and B. Law, […], →OCLC, page 277

   […] the cocoa-nut tree yields a pure draught from a dry and barren land; a cup of water to the temperate and thirsty traveler; a cup of cream from the pressed kernel; a cup of refreshing and sparkling toddy to the early riser; a cup of arrack to the hardened spirit-drinker, and a cup of oil, by the light of which I now extol its merits—five separate and distinct liquids from the same tree!

   1873 [1855], Samuel White Baker, Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon, J. B. Lippincott & Co., pages 272–273

   Ceylon teaches many lessons. The liquor traffic, for instance, is managed throughout the entire island as a governmental monopoly. […] Pure arrack only can be sold at fixed prices, and lessees are held to strict account for drunkenness and disturbances.

   1884, Andrew Carnegie, Round the World, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pages 171–172

   The Moh tree, botanically Bassia Latifolia, produces flowers rich in sugar, used in India in the manufacture of the liquor arrack.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 157

   Synonyms: palm arrack

2. countableuncountableAn alcoholic drink made from sugar cane and fermented red rice in Indonesia.

   Like rum, proper Batavia arrack from Indonesia, also known as arak or rack, is distilled from sugarcane. Unlike rum, it has a healthy dose of red rice added to the mash.

   2015, Matthew Rowley, Lost Recipes of Prohibition: Notes from a Bootlegger's Manual, The Countryman Press, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Today, arrack is still produced and consumed in parts of Indonesia. It has a particular important position among the Hindus in Bali and Lombok, who use it in ritual and sometimes also in the non-ritual, secular context.

   2021, Jiří Jákl, Alcohol in Early Java: Its Social and Cultural Significance, BRILL, →ISBN, page 109

   Synonyms: Batavia arrack

3. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of arak (“aniseed-flavored alcoholic drink consumed primarily in the Middle East”).

   1 more example

   When he walked in and out, looking at the house in connection with the sun, the trees, and the lake, and said, rubbing his hands with might of heartiness, “Well done! Make the dowar now as ye well know, and to-night we will sweeten the bread with arrack, and the milk with honey, and at every fire there shall be a kid. […]”

   1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, book fourth, page 257