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Definition of "moonshine" [moon•shine]

  • Moonlight. (noun)
  • Informal Foolish talk or thought; nonsense. (noun)
  • Illegally distilled whiskey. Also called regionally white lightning. (noun)
  • To distill and sell liquor illegally. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "moonshine" in a sentence
  • "John Boy Walton --- stole moonshine from the Baldwin Sisters 'still."
  • "A visit today to a United States District Court in most any section of the Blue Ridge Country where makers of illicit whiskey are being tried shows that the name moonshine no longer applies to the beverage."
  • "It had also spawned an underground, tax-free trade in an illegal substance that would forever be known as moonshine, and a collection apparatus staffed by men from the Bureau of Internal Revenue who would forever be known as revenuers."