rumbullion

plural rumbullions · alternative rum-bullion · alternative rombullion · alternative rumbullian

1. countableobsoleteuncountableSynonym of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, similar spirits.

   ...the chiefe fudling they make in the Island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devill, and this is made of suggar canes distilled, a hott, hellish and terrible liquor.

   c. 1651, "A Briefe Description of the Island of Barbados" in Trinity College MS G4, p. 15

   1 more example

   Now, if there be six Coppers, the first two are thinnest and biggest, in which the juyce is first boiled; but not by a very strong fire, for that will make the Scum to rise, by casting in Temper, as they call it: the first of which that ariseth is little worth; but afterwards, what is scum'd off, they make a very good drink of, called Locus-Ale, much used by the servants; or else they convey it into a Copper-Still (as they do all their other setlings and dregs of Sugar) to be distill'd, and make a sort of Strong-Water they call Rum, or Rum-bullion, stronger then Spirit of Wine, and not very pleasant, until a man is used to it. This strong liquor is ordinarily drank amongst the Planters, as well alone, as made into Punch.

   1672, William Hughes, The American Physitian..., pages 33-34

   Synonyms: rum

plural rumbullions · alternative rumbillion · alternative rombullion

1. obsoleteA kind of peach.First known use 1725
2. obsoleteA kind of gooseberry.First known use 1786

plural rumbullions

1. DevonarchaicdialectalA great tumult.

   When Jim brought the bride home from church that Rufus got hold of a gun and fired it off up chimney, and down come the soot, bushels of it! All over the room, and a chimney-pot burst and rattled down the tiles into a prambulator. What a rumbullion that was!

   1925 July, Alfred Edgar Coppard, “The Field of Mustard”, in The Dial, volume 79, page 52