speakeasy

[speek-ee-zee] /ˈspikˌi zi/
noun, plural speakeasies.
1.
a saloon or nightclub selling alcoholic beverages illegally, especially during Prohibition.
Origin
1885-90, Americanism; speak + easy
Examples from the web for speakeasy
  • They were trying to get to a party at a former speakeasy, where gangsters had gone to war against one another.
  • The speakeasy aura also extends to grittier establishments.
  • Plaintiff fled the speakeasy when the shooting started.
British Dictionary definitions for speakeasy

speakeasy

/ˈspiːkˌiːzɪ/
noun (pl) -easies
1.
(US) a place where alcoholic drink was sold illicitly during Prohibition
Word Origin
C19: from speak + easy (in the sense: gently, quietly)
Word Origin and History for speakeasy
n.

"unlicensed saloon," 1889 (in New York "Voice"), from speak + easy; so called from the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police and neighbors. The word gained wide currency in U.S. during Prohibition (1920-1932). In early 19c. Irish and British dialect, a speak softly shop meant "smuggler's den."

Slang definitions & phrases for speakeasy

speakeasy

noun

A cheap saloon, esp an illegal or after-hours place: It had been a speakeasy once/ All they give you in these speaks is smoke/ one thing that puts a speako over

[1889+; Samuel Hudson, a journalist, says in a 1909 book that he used the term in Philadelphia in 1889 after having heard it used in Pittsburgh by an old Irish woman who sold liquor clandestinely to her neighbors and enjoined them to ''spake asy''; hence related to early 1800s Irish and British dialect spake-aisy or speak softly shop, ''smugglers' den'']


speakeasy in Technology


Simple array-oriented language with numerical integration and differentiation, graphical output, aimed at statistical analysis.
["Speakeasy", S. Cohen, SIGPLAN Notices 9(4), (Apr 1974)].
["Speakeasy-3 Reference Manual", S. Cohen et al. 1976].