shebeen

plural shebeens · alternative shibbeen

1. An unlicensed drinking establishment, especially in Ireland, Scotland, and South Africa.

   ‘Well, let's line,’ he said to Ben. ‘We can fill up at a shebeen.’

   1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 178

   4 more examples

   Blind to the world up in a shebeen in Bride street after closing time […], drinking porter out of teacups.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 301

   On almost every corner there were shebeens, illegal saloons that were shacks where home-brewed beer was served.

   1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 88

   […]while across Ladbroke Grove, on the mainly black side, the Rio cafe into which I self-consciously tiptoed occasionally became the Mangrove restaurant, and All Saints Road the shebeen and dope-dealing capital of London, under the hammer of the police.

   2007 April 14, Ed Vulliamy, “Absolute MacInnes”, in The Guardian

   Every night and day there were bombs and gunshots and riots and roundups, and it didn't take long to gain access to the bars and shebeens where these things were discussed with a certain knowingness.

   2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 146

present singular third person shebeens · participle present shebeening · participle past shebeened · past shebeened

1. intransitiveTo operate an unlicensed drinking establishment.