beer

[beer] /bɪər/

noun

an alcoholic beverage made by brewing and fermentation from cereals, usually malted barley, and flavored with hops and the like for a slightly bitter taste.

any of various beverages, whether alcoholic or not, made from roots, molasses or sugar, yeast, etc.:

root beer; ginger beer.

an individual serving of beer; a glass, can, or bottle of beer:

We'll have three beers.

Origin

before 1000; Middle English bere, Old English bēor; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German bior, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch bēr, Dutch, German Bier (Old Norse bjōrr, probably < OE); of disputed and ambiguous orig.

Can be confused

beer, bier.

Beer

[beer] /bɪər/

noun

Thomas, 1889–1940, U.S. author.

Examples from the web for beer

Does not necessarily imply that the beer is made from lambic.
Mostly, these are strains that are also used in beer or wine production.
This beer is lightly hopped with a slightly lower alcohol content.
This variant is rarely played due to the excessive amounts of beer required.
On the allied side, different units also require different types of beer.
Casks used for ale or beer have shives, spiles and keystones in their openings.
A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company.
Once fermentation is complete, the yeast also settles, leaving the beer clear.
Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch.
Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer.

British Dictionary definitions for beer

beer

/bɪə/

noun

an alcoholic drink brewed from malt, sugar, hops, and water and fermented with yeast Compare ale

a slightly fermented drink made from the roots or leaves of certain plants: ginger beer, nettle beer

(modifier) relating to or used in the drinking of beer: beer glass, beer mat

(modifier) in which beer is drunk, esp (of licensed premises) having a licence to sell beer: beer house, beer cellar, beer garden

Word Origin

Old English beor; related to Old Norse bjōrr, Old Frisian biār, Old High German bior

Word Origin and History for beer

Old English beor "strong drink, beer, mead," a word of much-disputed and ambiguous origin, cognate with Old Frisian biar, Middle Dutch and Dutch bier, Old High German bior, German Bier.

Probably a 6c. West Germanic monastic borrowing of Vulgar Latin biber "a drink, beverage" (from Latin infinitive bibere "to drink;" see imbibe). Another suggestion is that it comes from Proto-Germanic *beuwoz-, from *beuwo- "barley." The native Germanic word for the beverage was the one that yielded ale (q.v.).

Beer was a common drink among most of the European peoples, as well as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, but was known to the Greeks and Romans only as an exotic product. [Buck]

They did have words for it, however. Greek brytos, used in reference to Thracian or Phrygian brews, was related to Old English breowan "brew;" Latin zythum is from Greek zythos, first used of Egyptian beer and treated as an Egyptian word but perhaps truly Greek and related to zyme "leaven." French bière is from Germanic. Spanish cerveza is from Latin cervesia "beer," perhaps related to Latin cremor "thick broth."

Old Church Slavonic pivo, source of the general Slavic word for "beer," is originally "a drink" (cf. Old Church Slavonic piti "drink"). French bière is a 16c. borrowing from German. U.S. slang beer goggles, through which every potential romantic partner looks desirable, is from 1986.

Slang definitions & phrases for beer

beer

beer in the Bible

well. (1.) A place where a well was dug by the direction of Moses, at the forty-fourth station of the Hebrews in their wanderings (Num. 21:16-18) in the wilderness of Moab. (See WELL.) (2.) A town in the tribe of Judah to which Jotham fled for fear of Abimelech (Judg. 9:21). Some have identified this place with Beeroth.