Definition of "barley-bree" [bar•ley-bree]

• Liquor made from barley; strong ale (noun)

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• "By eight o'clock, however, he was merry with the barley-bree, and making"
• "Willie who gave the entertainment was Mr William Nicol, a master in the High School of Edinburgh -- Rab, the poet himself -- and Allan, a certain Mr Masterton, likewise of the Edinburgh High School: three merry-hearted men, of remarkable talents and many other good properties, but who, unfortunately, were all of them too liable to the seductions of the 'barley-bree.'"
• ""In a snug shelter maybe at our hostelrie below, with a mug of the right barley-bree buzzing at our elbow -- oat-cake and cheese conformable thereto.""