brew

present singular third person brews · participle present brewing · participle past brewed · past brewed

1. intransitivetransitiveTo make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.

   Elderly people sat indoors, in the damp. shabby houses, brewing malt coffee or weak tea and talking without animation […]

   1935, Christopher Isherwood, chapter 11, in Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, published 1942, page 113

2. transitiveTo heat wine, infusing it with spices; to mull.

   Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]

3. intransitivetransitiveTo make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.
4. intransitivetransitiveTo make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.
5. transitiveTo foment or prepare, as by brewing.

   Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceiver […]

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 106

   Synonyms: contrive, plot, hatch

6. intransitiveTo attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.

   I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink […]

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]

7. intransitiveTo be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.

   There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]

   2 more examples

   Of course, no one knows what kind of flu season is brewing, the perfect storm of a new strain hitting a largely unvaccinated population or a mercifully mild few months.

   2004 October 29, Marco R. Della Cava, “Vaccine shortage pricks tempers”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A

   Grant may have considered that only a performance of the very highest quality could keep him in a job - and the way his players started the game gave the 55-year-old shelter from the storm that was brewing.

   2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC

8. obsoletetransitiveTo boil or seethe; to cook.

   She had one day to get up very early in the morning to brew, when the other servants said to her: 'You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.'

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6

plural brews

1. The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed; a brewage, such as tea or beer.

   Six great bottles of one of the Hong Kong brews had been brought to wash down the brandy and the fragments of rice and mee and meat-fibres that clung to the back teeth.

   1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 529

   1. slangA serving of beer.

      Player, give me some brew and I might just chill / But I'm the type that like to light another joint like Cypress Hill

      1995, “I Got 5 on It”, in Operation Stackola, performed by Luniz

      Synonyms: brewski

   2. UKslangA cup of tea.

      Landlady: You're not stoppin' for a brew? Gene Hunt: No thanks, love. Better crack on.

      2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3

2. A boiled concoction or mixture of liquids and other ingredients.

   In the Middle Ages, when witchcraft and thaumaturgic practices were rampant over Europe, sorceresses did a roaring trade in magic brews designed to excite the passion or to preserve affection.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 189

plural brews

1. UKdialectalAn overhanging hill or cliff.

plural Brews

1. A surname.