rotgut

plural rotguts · alternative rot gut

1. slanguncountableusuallyRaw or poor-quality alcoholic liquor.

   Near-synonym: red-eye

   2 more examples

   Then the harpooner carried away a pink flask to be filled in some blind pig, for there were no licensed saloons in that locality. We drank the cheap rotgut out of tumblers.

   1913 August, Jack London, chapter VI, in John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 48

   His mother, Dorothy, hung around longer, long enough for her to choke on her own vomit. She had that taste—rotgut, the rougher the better.

   2019 July 16, Colson Whitehead, chapter 10, in The Nickel Boys, Vintage, page 125

   Synonyms: gut rot, hooch, swill, red-eye, bug juice, corn liquor, firewater, hooch