brew
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bro͞o
ipa: /bɹuː/
ipa: /bɹuʊ̯/
note: Wales, Ottawa Valley, Southern US
ipa: /bɹɪʊ̯/
rhymes: -uː
Forms: form: brews
form: brewing
form: brewed
form: brewed
Etymology: From Middle English brewen, from Old English brēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *breuwan, from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of burn.
Cognate with
Dutch brouwen, German brauen, Swedish brygga, Norwegian Bokmål brygge; also Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well”), Latin fervēre (“to be hot; to burn; to boil”), Old Irish bruth (“violent, boiling heat”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurván, “motion of water”). It may be related to English barley.
Senses: examples: text: Elderly people sat indoors, in the damp. shabby houses, brewing malt coffee or weak tea and talking without animation […]
ref: 1935, Christopher Isherwood, chapter 11, in Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, published 1942, page 113:
glosses: To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.
examples: text: Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:
glosses: To heat wine, infusing it with spices; to mull.
glosses: To make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.
glosses: To make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.
examples: text: Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceiver […]
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 106:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
synonyms: contrive
plot
hatch
glosses: To foment or prepare, as by brewing.
examples: text: I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
glosses: To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.
examples: text: There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
text: Of course, no one knows what kind of flu season is brewing, the perfect storm of a new strain hitting a largely unvaccinated population or a mercifully mild few months.
ref: 2004 October 29, Marco R. Della Cava, “Vaccine shortage pricks tempers”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A:
text: Grant may have considered that only a performance of the very highest quality could keep him in a job - and the way his players started the game gave the 55-year-old shelter from the storm that was brewing.
ref: 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC:
glosses: To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.
raw_tags: of an unwelcome event
examples: text: She had one day to get up very early in the morning to brew, when the other servants said to her: 'You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.'
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6:
glosses: To boil or seethe; to cook.
Derived terms: abrew
as you have brewed, so you must drink
brewable
brewage
brewer
brewery
brewhouse
brew up
hell-brewed
homebrewed
microbrewed
misbrew
nanobrew
nonbrewed
overbrew
rebrew
unbrewed
underbrew