brew

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

Noun

  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...

    1. (slang) A 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. (UK, slang) A 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,...

Origin

From Middle English brewen, from Old English brēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *breuwan, from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of burn. Cognate with Dutch brouwen, German brauen, Swedish brygga, Norwegian Bokmål brygge; also Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well”), Latin fervēre (“to be hot; to burn; to boil”), Old Irish bruth (“violent, boiling heat”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurván, “motion of water”). It may be related to English barley.

Forms

brews

Derived

brewfest brew-in brewmaster brewology brewpub brewsky brewster broth builder's brew cold brew cold brew coffee craft brew hellbrew homebrew iron brew macrobrew megabrew microbrew on the brew witches' brew

Noun UK, dialectal

  1. An overhanging hill or cliff.

Origin

From Middle English brewe (“eyebrow”), from Old English bru (“eyebrow”). Doublet of brow.

Forms

brews

Verb

  1. To 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,...
  2. To 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...
  3. To make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.
  4. To make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.
  5. To foment or prepare, as by brewing.
    • Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceiver […] - 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […]...

    Synonyms: contrive plot hatch

  6. To 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),...
  7. To 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: […]...
    • 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...
    • 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...
  8. To 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.' -...

Forms

brews brewing brewed

Derived

abrew as you have brewed, so you must drink brewable brewage brewer brewery brewhouse brew up hell-brewed homebrewed microbrewed misbrew nanobrew nonbrewed overbrew rebrew unbrewed underbrew