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Definition of "ardent spirits" []

  • Strong alcoholic liquors, such as whiskey or gin. (noun-plural)

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 "ardent spirits" in a sentence
  • "If we look into the poor-houses, jails, hospitals and lunatic asylums, from one end of the land to the other, and enquire what it is that has brought the wretched inmates there, we shall learn that more than one-half, nearly three-quarters, may safely assign too free a use of ardent spirits as the cause of their ruin."
  • "He had drunk a fair amount of ardent spirits and his talent was extinct as a result, useless as a blown-out taper."
  • "Premiums are offered for all improvements in the industrial and economical arts, and for the best essays on all moral subjects; but the richest premium will he deserve, who, by some chymic art, shall make young collegians loathe intoxicating drinks, or by some happy improvement in political economy, shall drive ardent spirits out of the land as an article of manufacture or of commerce."