moonshine

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, literally, uncountable) The light of the moon.
2. (countable, informal, uncountable) High-proof alcohol (especially whiskey) that is often, but not always, produced illegally.
3. (England, archaic, countable, dialectal, uncountable) smuggled spirits, often with a specific sense; (Kent, Sussex) white brandy; (Yorkshire) gin.
4. (colloquial, uncountable) Nonsense.
5. (uncountable) A branch of pure mathematics relating the Monster group to an invariant of elliptic functions.
6. (US, countable, uncountable) A spiced dish of eggs and fried onions.
7. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) A month.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make homemade (especially, illicit) alcohol, especially distilled spirits.
2. (transitive) To make (an ingredient) into such a drink.

Synonyms

moonlight

bootleg

Moon

🌔

mountain dew

whiskey

corn liquor

smugge

nonsense

rubbish

samogon

dollarfish

moon

🌔

piffle

rotgut

stuff

twaddle

horsefish

balderdash

moonbeams

illicitly brewed liquor

moonfish

bluntnosed shiner

bristle-finned moonfish

flatjack

home-distilled alcohol

Atlantic moonfish

hairfinned dory

hairfinned silverfish

pugnosed shiner

horsehead

booze

calendula

claptrap

effulgence

fiddlesticks

homebrew

hooey

liquor

lookdown

moonbeam

moonstone

Translations

Mondschein

luar

clair de lune

chiaro di luna

claro de luna

maneschijn

Mondlicht

φεγγαρόφωτο

σεληνόφωτο

schwarzgebrannter Schnaps

Spirituosen

ضوء القمر

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmuːnʃaɪn/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: mone schyne

In summary

From Middle English mone schyne, mone-schyne, moone shone; equivalent to moon + shine. Illegally distilled liquor is so named because its manufacture may be conducted without artificial light at night. The verb sense is a back-formation from moonshiner.